A definite feeling has existed in and out of Congress during many of the last twenty-five years that our farm finance system has been unsatisfactory. The large amount of Federal legislation on farm credit in this period provides ample evidence in support of this view. Nor has this feeling entirely disappeared. Several bills calling for drastic credit revisions are now scheduled for debate in the coming session of Congress. In appraising past legislation and in marking out a future course, the question may well be raised as to what kind of farm credit system, private and governmental, is desired or needed in this country. The following discussion tackles this question by dealing, first, with the outline of an ideal system; and, second, with some desirable changes in our present farm credit organization. Not all features of the farm credit system can be covered, naturally, because of the limit to the length of this paper.