In loaning money on demand, when it is strictly understood between bank and borrower that the money so advanced is positively minute money - money returnable at any minute, when the bank calls for it - banks usually charge low rates of interest. When interest rates are high, bankers prefer to deal in long-time paper. This general rule is reversed when the situation is reversed Bankers aim also to scatter and locate their maturities so that as the seasons roll around, they will not have very large amounts maturing at one time and very small amounts at another. They plan also to be "in funds" at those seasons when there is always a large and profitable demand for money. For instance in the centers of the cotton manufacturing interest the banks count on a large demand for money between October and January when the bulk of the purchases to supply the mills are made: again, among those who operate and deal in wool there is an active demand for money in the wool clip in the spring months. The wheat and corn crops are autumn consumers of money. Midwinter and midsummer in the north are usually periods of comparative stagnation in the money market.

All these things affect rates, and the successful banker is he who from observation and large experience shows the most skill in timing his money supply.