47 ] THE INFLUENCE OF THE CREDIT SYSTEM 47 



order that the person taking a lien might know to what 

 extent the property was already encumbered, it was also 

 provided that, if asked, the giver of the lien should give 

 information on this point. The law declared that to 

 give false information in such cases would operate to 

 place the offender in the same category, as to punish- 

 ment, with those fraudulently making a second deed. 

 The liens hereunder created were 



declared to be superior in rank to other liens, except liens for 

 taxes, the general and special liens of laborers, and the special 

 lien of landlords, to which they shall be inferior, and shall as 

 between themselves and other liens not therein excepted, rank 

 according to date, and shall only exist as liens on the crop of 

 the year in which they are made. 1 



This law, in its completeness, was in force only two ^ 

 years, for in 1874 an act was passed repealing it, except 

 in so far as it relates to landlords. 2 So that for the past 

 thirty years in Georgia only landlords have had the legal 

 right to take liens on the growing crops. This legal 

 separation of merchants from an immediate relation to 

 a great body of the farmers, that is to say, to the ten 

 ants, is a matter of great concern as bearing upon the 

 question of landownership. 



A hasty perusal of these lien laws is apt to suggest the 

 conclusion that they are of only slight significance as 

 affecting the ownership of land, although it would be 

 granted that they are of considerable importance in con- 

 nection with a study of the farming interests of the state 

 in general and of the tenancies there existing in par- 

 ticular. 



x Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of Georgia, January, 

 1873, P- 43- 



*Acts of the General Assembly of Georgia, 1874, p. 18. 



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