:.: an TOM'’S EXPERIENCE 
would not be running to Kingston for a week or two 
yet, but he was making contracts and receiving some 
grain which farmers were ina hurry to deliver. 
The best offer I could get for wheat was 90 cents, 
and for oats 35 cents a bushel, but Mr. White made 
an agreement that if Minneapolis prices advanced be- 
fore the delivery of the grain, he would give me a 
corresponding advance. During that week I deliv- 
ered all the wheat, and the next week threshed and 
delivered the oats. For both I received from Mr. 
White $568, out of which I must pay the expense 
of threshing. We had not been able to sell any 
stock, and it was now less than a week till the sale. 
During that time I exhausted every resource to 
raise the $900 still needed to save the farm, but with- 
out success. [ had not succeeded in raising another 
dollar. 
THE REASON WHY. 
People in eastern states may wonder that, with my 
160 acres of land and other property as security, I 
could not borrow this amount, but they must remem- 
ber that there was at that time very little money to 
lend in this part of the country. Settlers were not 
capitalists, and had need of all their own means and 
generally more. A new bank had been started at 
Kingston, but its capital was quite small, and what 
it had was used entirely in short time loans—two 
and three months—and mostly in amounts of from 
$100 to $300. The two banks at the county seat had 
