Loans are usually applied for to the district committee which each bank has, with a statement of the property, the amount required, and all documents necessary to prove title and freedom from encumbrance. Properties may be valued by a special valuation, or a multiple of the net income as assessed to the land tax may be taken. In both cases, however, an inspection of the property is necessary unless under a special rule. Half to two-thirds of the estimated value is allowable as a loan. The interest paid by the borrower on the loans is that paid by the bank on the debentures, the bank being merely an intermediary between the borrower and the actual lending public. But where the bank pays the loan in cash it charges such interest as it thinks proper, in order to make up any loss should the debentures sell below par. Loans are repayable almost entirely by amortization, usually in about fifty-three years. Some short-term loans are granted, with corresponding debentures. The bank cannot demand repayment of a loan except in case of waste, deterioration, or the like. On the other hand, the borrower is at liberty to repay in whole or in part whenever he pleases, but must pay the entire interest for the half year in which he repays. The loan is repaid by an annuity consisting of the interest, sinking fund (usually beginning at one-half of 1 per cent), with a contribution to the reserve or guaranty fund, and another for the expenses of administration. The annuities have totaled 6 per cent, but they now average around 4 per cent or lower; e.g., interest being 3 per cent, sinking fund one-half of 1 per cent, guaranty fund one-fourth of 1 per cent, and expenses one-fourth of 1 per cent. Some of the banks also require a lump payment on the grant of the loan of 1 or 2 per cent, to be credited either to the working or to the guaranty fund. The working fund is formed by the contribution made for the expenses of management and any special sources. Hungary is the only nation outside of Germany that has a true Landschaft of the original type. But modified forms exist in Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Roumania, where they have been useful in supplying agriculture with cheap capital. There is no older principle in land credit than the Landschaften idea. It has been tested and proved by over one hundred and thirty years of success, and could undoubtedly be employed to advantage by water users' associations in the irrigated regions of the West and in other parts of the United States where landowners might unite to raise funds for drainage or other improvements for their common good. Some of the banks of Switzerland and the credit associations of Denmark, with the laws governing them, perhaps furnish the best models, as appears from the reports of the American ministers to those countries that have been forwarded to the Secretary of State.