118 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



be opened and the ranning roots cut off, and a 

 ehovol-ruU of good compost manure thrown upon 

 the hill aud covered with the hoe. They are 

 usually to bo plowed and hoed three or four 

 times in urdor to keep them free from weeds. 



Picking usually begins about the first of Sep- 

 teml)cr, and after this they are dried carefully in 

 the kiln, over a charcoal fire, and packed in bales, 

 when they are ready for market. 



For the Ifetu England Farmer. 



MORTGAGES ON FARMS. 



Mr. Editor ; — In mj- furmer article on "Mort- 

 gage!<, &(.'.,'■ I attempted to show what I un- 

 derstood by the principle, and how it was or 

 miglit 1)0 ajiplied in cases of necessity in farming 

 matters. And in repl}^ "Reader" has given me 

 his experience in several instances, and thinks it 

 may bo a sample of what mortgages come to in 

 general. My own idea is, that he has given us 

 his experience in the matter, which is all very 

 well as far as it goes. Now my idea farther is, 

 that were lie to go through the State and canvass 

 this matter in regard to mortgages among farmers, 

 he would find hardly any two men who told the 

 same sturj-. In fiict, the whole thing turns on 

 " management," as I understand it ; and, in 

 fact, like any other business, more depends on the 

 "men" you have to do with, than in all other 

 matters put together. Some men will do well 

 enough with a mortgage over them, while others, 

 apparently going along in the same track, will 

 fail. AVhat does this prove 1 Why, if it proves 

 any tiling, it says, in substance, that in this 

 matter mure depends on "men and management," 

 than all other outside causes you can name. 



My oAvn experience is not just what "Read- 

 er's" is on "mortgages," not having gone through 

 all those operations. In former years, my late 

 father began the world in a small way, of course 

 buyhig Iiis land by pieces, generally on the 

 "mortgage" plan, as usual. In later years, when 

 he made additions to his fixrm, it was done by a 

 "note," uften depending more on who the parties 

 were he had to deal with — sometimes with an 

 "endors T," or not, as the case might be. But 

 all the operations came to the same thing finally, 

 namely, the land must be paid for in time, or 

 else b(! forfeited and lost. Of course, when the 

 land was paid for, then the "notes and mort- 

 gages" were killed, and not till then. So, in 

 reality, he never knew any difference whether 

 the land was mortgaged or not ; the idea was, of 

 course, to pay for it in the shortest time. lie, 

 of course, never allowed himself to believe that 

 the land could not be paid for in time, by good 

 manag'^ment, for he knew better. Sometimes he 

 could no more than meet the interest, and, in 

 other years, hardly that ; tlien, again, he could 

 pay Hoine of the principal, and so on till the thing 

 was finished. 



Now, the point at issue betwixt us and "Read- 

 er" is, when and where should "mortgages" be 

 allowed, and wlien not? I attempted to show, 

 in a former article, how and where they might 

 be allowed by the farmer. "Reader," in reply, 

 gave me his own personal experience on "mort- 

 gages," which, to my own idea, does not meet 



the issue in question. But, as I understand 

 "Reader" now, ho is "death" on mortgages in 

 general ; but, under some circumstances, thoy 

 may be allowed on the purchase of a farm, but 

 never to raise money to make "improvements" 

 on the same very well. Now I wish the readers 

 of the Farmer to remember, in my former article 

 on this subject, that I only recommended the 

 mortgage plan to raise means for farm improve- 

 ments when all other plans fiiiled, and I say so 

 now. But when it came to this, then I would 

 put a mortgage on the farm for improvements 

 as soon as I would to buy the land. And why 

 not ? Now, suppose a young farmer to come in 

 possession of a poor, worn-out farm, and, after 

 he has made some improvements in the way of a 

 house for his family, barn, &c., lie finds himself 

 without a red cent to commence farming with. 

 What is to be done? "Reader," in this case, 

 would pirobably say the young fiirmer must look 

 up some job outside of the farm, in a neighboring 

 factory, or "hire" out by the month to a farmer 

 until he can raise money to bi.'gin farming with. 

 And what is to be done with the farm in the 

 meantime? Why, nothing, of course. My plan 

 would be to tell the young farmer to go on to the 

 farm at once, and give his whole time and atten- 

 tion to it, never leaving the farm for any "out- 

 side" job that may ofl'er, so long as he can earn 

 three shillings or fifty cents a day for his work at 

 home on the farm. The young farmnr has noth- 

 ing else to depend on to live but tliis worn-out 

 farm. Then, if he works this farm on the star- 

 vation principle, how long will it be before he, in 

 turn, will get starved out by such management? 



It is, then, as we said in our former article, 

 that* the young farmer must see that he cannot 

 afford to let his land lie idle or go unimproved. 

 Of course it is vinderstood that, in the first place, 

 the young farmer understands his business, and 

 that he knows just what course to take to reno- 

 vate Ids laud in the shortest time. All that is 

 wanting is the ready capital, which must be had 

 some way ; he must begin by using as many im- 

 proved farming implements as his means will 

 allow, always remembering that good lal)or-saving 

 farm implements are much cheaper in the long 

 run than manual labor, in these days on the farm. 

 Then, the young farmer must supply himself with 

 good agricultural papers, books, periodicals, &c., 

 and not think that part of his farming capital 

 is wasted when spent in this waj'. I'or one of the 

 great pull-backs in farming is a want of know- 

 ledge, which, in fact, is ahead of all other wants 

 on the farm, when applied to practical farming. 

 If this fault could be remedied, many a "mort- 

 gage" would be paid off with no difficulty at all, 

 which has been left to be handed down from 

 father to son. 



Does "Reader" suppose that the parental farm, 

 on which he was turned off on account of an old 

 "mortgage," could not have been })aid, (even in 

 his father's day,) if the management on the farm 

 had been equal to the best farm improvements of 

 the present day? I do not know, of course, what 

 "outside debts" "Reader's" fiirm had to meet ; 

 but I do not hesitate to say, if no uncommon 

 debts but what grew out of the old "mortgage" 

 was on the farm, then the system I have named 

 above, if faithfully carried out, would have paid 

 it. Has "Reader" a doubt of it? I see very 



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