Homesteading 



succession, those who sign them are often landed 

 hopelessly in debt. 



Constant reference to such details may seem 

 trivial, but is essential to enable the would-be 

 pioneer farmer or his friends from the Old Country 

 to estimate the prospects of success or failure 

 likely to attend his efforts and sacrifices in going 

 to a new country. It wants to be well under- 

 stood that while large areas of the prairie are 

 rapidly converted into good farms, it constantly 

 happens that the men who have borne the burden 

 of the pioneer work are not the ones to benefit 

 when prosperity comes, and that the instruments 

 by which they are dispossessed, as it were, are 

 to a large extent these lien notes, and mortgages 

 of one sort and another. 



Having finished the business of the seeder 

 and harrows, I decided to stop the night in town, 

 arranging for getting our new implements out 

 by a returning grain freighter, and take the trail 

 home next day. Having been fortunate enough 

 to find one of our neighbours in town with a team, 

 and returning with an empty sleigh, we loaded 

 up the implements thereon, and taking the trail 

 early in the day, had no difficulty in doing the 

 twenty-six miles in fair time and getting back 

 before dark to No. 9, where I put up for the 

 night. 



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