BUYING FARMS WITH LAND-BANK LOANS. 13 
It is probable that the terms on mortgages given to the class of 
persons other than sellers represent fairly closely the typical con- 
ditions for ordinary commercial loans on second mortgages. How- 
ever, some of these loans may have been given to relatives or other 
persons who had some special motives for granting specially favor- 
able terms. 
The need of popularizing the second mortgage when given in con- 
nection with the purchase of a farm through the aid of a first-mort- 
gage loan obtained from the Federal land banks is strongly suggested 
by the fact that, of the entire number of farms purchased on which 
second-mortgage loans were obtained, only 116, or 22 per cent of 
the entire 531, were taken by men who Avere reported neither as rela- 
tives of the purchaser nor as the former owners of the land. If 
second mortgages given in connection with Federal farm loans were 
looked upon with more favor by men having money to lend, there 
would doubtless be a wider use of the Federal land bank mortgage as 
a means of acquiring land by persons having a small amount of 
money, but not enough to operate a farm and pay for the full 
amount of its cost not covered by a loan which they could get from 
a Federal land bank. 
PROPORTION OF PURCHASE PRICE OBTAINED ON SECOND MORTGAGE. 
In Table VI is shown the percentage of the purchase price repre- 
sented by second mortgages in the case of 527 farms purchased 
through the aid of second mortgages, for which complete data are 
available. Of these, 167, or 32 per cent of the second mortgages, were 
for one-fourth or less of the purchase price, and 18 per cent for more 
than half of the purchase price. Men who purchased from sellers 
who were not their relatives, but who were willing to accept the sec- 
ond mortgage in lieu of part of the cost of the farm, placed more 
than half of the cost of the farm on second mortgage in 22 per cent 
of the cases. Of the men who were able to get relatives to accept 
the second mortgage, 10 out of a total of 32, or 31 per cent, were ac- 
commodated with second mortgages which represented more than 
half of the purchase price of the farm. On the other hand, only 4 
of the 107 second mortgages which were held neither by the former 
owner of the land nor by a relative of the buyer of the farm were 
for more than half the cost of the farm. 
