343] The Condition of the Western Farmer. 



65 



XVI.-AVERAGE SIZE OF MORTGAGES AND AVERAGE 

 DEBT PER ACRE. 



Thus far our figures have tended to indicate that the 

 average debt of owners in actual residence is not quite so 

 heavy as that of the class of farm owners as a whole. But 

 we can widen our point of view a little, and attribute the 

 debt to residents or non-residents, not according to the class 

 in which the land under its present ownership falls, but ac- 

 cording to the class to which the land belonged at the time 

 when the debt was incurred. For instance, a farmer in 

 actual residence may have found himself compelled to put 

 a mortgage on his home, and he may then, some time later, 

 have sold either for his own profit or compelled by neces- 

 sity; or he may have moved off his farm without selling. 

 In these cases, the purchaser, if any, often stands ready at 

 any time to pay the mortgage, but of course cannot do so 

 until it is due without considerable loss. Now if we should 

 divide the debt into two classes, according as it was in- 

 curred by residents or by non-residents, such cases as those 

 above would fall in the former class, though in the tables 

 we have given they of course came among the debts of 

 non-residents. Table XVII. shows the debt incurred by 

 residents and that incurred fry non-residents, and we find 

 that 68.75 P er cent f the debt was incurred by the former/ 

 class, upon 70.99 per cent of all the mortgaged acres. But; 

 we still find that the average debt per mortgaged acre for'; 

 residents is considerably lower than that for non-residents,; 

 as is also the case with the average size of the mortgaged 

 But if we now compare the average debt per acre on all 

 acres for residents with that for non-residents, we find the 

 former to be about forty per cent larger than the latter, the 



