148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



expenses you had thus incurred relying upon his keeping his 

 word. The only safe way in such cases is to take a bond for 

 a deed, as it is called. An ordinary " refusal " of property, 

 as it is termed, is a dangerous thing to rely upon, unless you 

 are dealing with a man whose " word is as good as his bond," 

 and they are very scarce. And, if a particular time is given 

 you in which to accept an offer to sell, you should be partic- 

 ular to signify your acceptance strictly within the time, and 

 to do so entirely unconditionally and without any qualifica- 

 tions, but exactly as it was made. In one instance a man 

 had ten days in which to make up his mind, and on the night 

 of the last day, about half-past eleven at night, he called at 

 the owner's house, after he was abed and asleep, and said he 

 would take the farm. The owner refused to get up, or to 

 take the money the next day, and the buyer tried to get the 

 farm by a suit-at-law ; but it was decided that he came too 

 late on the last day, and he not only lost his trade, but 

 had to pay the costs of his suit (26 Miss. 309). In another 

 case A. wrote to B. he would sell him his farm for three 

 thousand dollars cash. B. wrote back immediately he would 

 take it, if A. would make out his deed and send it to a lawyer 

 for examination, and, if all right, the lawyer would pay him 

 his three thousand dollars ; but it was decided that B. had not 

 duly accepted A.'s offer, because he did not enclose the cash 

 in his letter, but asked A. to carry his deed to a third person 

 for examination, and consequently that A. might withdraw 

 and sell to another party (53 Me. 511). 



But, supposing the grantor is willing to give you a deed, 

 it must have the seal of the grantor attached, or it is 

 not suificient. A scroll of the- pen, or the letters L. S., are 

 not sufficient in Massachusetts, as in some other States. It 

 may not be as well understood that it is not equally neces- 

 sary that a deed should be witnessed or acknowledged, and 

 recorded. These last two requisites may be essential to 

 make the deed valid against the creditors of the grantor, or 

 any one who subsequently bought the farm without knowing 

 of the prior deed; and they are always so important they 

 should never be neglected : and my first advice to you is, that, 

 if you find any unrecorded deeds among your papers when 

 you go home, you attend to that duty forthwith. Having 

 once obtained a sufficient deed, the next question seems to be, 



