Homesteading 



for his machinery, and in paying the wages du 

 to his hired man, which range from twenty to 

 thirty dollars a month, and higher during harvest ; 

 this is of course made more difficult for him b} 

 the inability of poor neighbours to honour the 

 notes they have given him in payment for an 

 ox, a cow, or a horse, their own crop having 

 failed, and also being disappointed of the high 

 wages they had hoped to earn by helping harvest, 

 and especially thresh, their more prosperous neigh- 

 bours' crops. 



This will become apparent as it affected Ton 

 and myself, but a word first as to these notes. 

 They are called "lien notes," and are of 

 course undertakings to pay on a given date for 

 a certain article or animal named thereon — as, for 

 instance, "a red and white ox called Tom "— 

 and when duly registered constitute a lien on 

 the animal or goods, which may not be sold again 

 until the note is redeemed — in fact, a mortgage. 

 Provisions as to interest may be added, say, at 

 about 8 per cent., which is also a common rat( 

 with the banks, which, it may be noted in pass- 

 ing, rarely or never lend on land, mortgages 

 on land being commonly negotiated with loan 

 companies. 



Credit, too, for groceries is often needful from 

 the storekeepers in the little towns dotted along 



ii8 



