On September 28, 1936, Premier Patterson of Saskatchewan announced that his government had reached an agreement with the Dominion Mortgage and Investments Association under which a comprehensive scheme of agricultural debt adjustment on a voluntary basis would be established in the province. The new scheme involved partial abandonment of the principle of individual adjustment and aimed at the rapid scaling down of the debt burden by effecting what would be in essence a blanket reduction of certain classes of debts. However, since crop failures had not afflicted every part of the province with equal severity, it was decided to divide the province into three areas, the extent of each area being determined by the crop returns of the previous six years. An area comprising 158 rural municipalities and local improvement districts in the south (making up approximately one-half of the settled region of the province), and designated as the drought area, was to be given substantial reductions in relief, tax and mortgage indebtedness. A marginal area of 18 rural municipalities which had suffered less acutely was to receive special consideration and smaller adjustments to be determined by subsequent negotiation. A third area making up the balance of the province was to receive no reduction of indebtedness but was to enjoy, along with the drought and marginal areas, a reduction in the interest rate on all farm mortgages and agreements of sale of land to 6 per cent, as from January 1, 1937, together with extension of such mortgages and agreements for a period of ten years.