40 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



gages are placed on record for a total sum of $1,542,000, 

 and of these 403 are on farms, incumbering 40,763 acres 

 of land; -there was 641 mortgages recorded on town lots 

 for the sum of $566,521, incumbering 982 lots; there 

 were 708 chattel mortgages, mostly on live stock and farm 

 implements for a sum of $213,449. This is the record in 

 McL,ean county for one year. To show the rate of increase 

 there was nearly one-third more mortgages placed on 

 record last year than in 1880. In DeWitt county there 

 was placed on record in 1887, 562 mortgages for a total 

 sum of $444,406; of these 218 were on farm lands and for 

 a sum of $303,058, incumbering 19,922 acres of land; 

 town lots were mortgaged for $62,875. The prevalence of 

 chattel mortgages is much more in DeWitt than in 

 McLean county, 244 chattel mortgages being recorded for 

 the sum of $78,473. Piatt county is much worse off than 

 DeWitt. For the year 1887, 647 mortgages for the sum of 

 $533,633 were recorded, incumbering 22,128 acres of land; 

 233 were on farm implements and live stock for $108,132. 

 Still worse in I/ogan county, 1,112 mortgages were 

 recorded last year; the total sum of these mortgages is 

 $783,135. Just one year's tribute to Shylock on the 

 mortgage record of last year. For the same year 457 

 farmers had to mortgage their farms, stock and implements 

 to raise $153,037, and more had mortgaged their growing 

 crops. These counties comprise the fourteenth Congres- 

 sional district, one of the richest agricultural districts in 

 Illinois, and the indebtedness last year was $3,987,336, and 

 127,218 acres of land were incumbered thereby. The 

 total present mortgage indebtedness of the fourteenth 

 Congressional district is $11,500,000, on which is annually 

 paid interest amounting to $787,500." 



If such is the state of affairs in one of the richest 

 agricultural districts of Illinois, how deplorable it must be 

 in those States that are not blessed with the fertility of 



