The manager and directors feel that they can advance with confidence; the farmer has the means to pay.

In bad seasons and with short crops the farmer is more anxious than ever to borrow; but the bank is obliged to contract its sphere of operations.
It usually happens that one or more of the directors of a country bank are themselves farmers in a large way--gentlemen farmers, but with practical knowledge.

They are men whose entire lives have been spent in the locality, and who have a very wide circle of acquaintances and friends among agriculturists.

Their forefathers were stationed there before them, and thus there has been an accumulation of local knowledge.

They not only thoroughly understand the soil of the neighbourhood, and can forecast the effect of particular seasons with certainty, but they possess an intimate knowledge of family history, what farmer is in a bad way, who is doubtful, or who has always had a sterling reputation.