349] The Condition of the Western Farmer. 



71 



dents is under mortgage, while less than two-thirds of the 

 land of grade ten is encumbered. Similarly we find a de- 

 crease in the average debt per acre for mortgaged acres as 

 we ascend to better grades of land, though here there is a 

 slight break in the case of grade nine, which has a lower 

 average debt per acre than grade ten. We infer, in general, 

 from these facts, that the lot of the settler on the best land 

 is disproportionately better than that of the man on poor 

 land. If it were a mere question of how much one could 

 borrow, the resident of good land would of course be able 

 to incur the heavier debt. Both the farmer of good and the 

 farmer of poor land started on a level, or, if the latter was a 

 comparatively recent purchaser, he acquired his farm at a 

 lower price and consequently started with a smaller debt or 

 outlay of purchase money, but he has now fallen very far 

 behind in almost every case. So decidedly is this true that 

 one might almost infer that the ordinary man had better pay 

 twenty-five dollars an acre or more for a good farm than take 

 the poor one as a gift, if he has any regard whatever for his 

 probable condition after a number of years of fanning. 



XIX. AND XX. MORTGAGES AND FERTILITY. 



