The parties, if the transaction be private, adjourn to their favourite inn, and out comes the cheque-book.

If a purchase be effected at either of the auctions proceeding it is paid for by cheque, and, on the other hand, should the farmer be the vendor, his money comes to him in the shape of a cheque.

With the exception of his dinner and the ostler, the farmer who comes to market carries on all his transactions with paper.

The landlord of the hotel takes cash for the dinner, and the ostler takes his shilling.

For the rest, it is all cheques cheques, cheques; so that the whole business of agriculture, from the purchase of the seed to the sale of the crop, passes through the bank.
The toll taken by the bank upon such transactions as simple buying and selling is practically _nil_; its profit is indirect.