80 BULLETIN 1295, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
A FIRM BUYING AND SELLING PARTLY IMPROVED FARMS AND SUPPLYING 
EQUIPMENT ON CREDIT 
In the case of one concern the sale of livestock, equipment, bee 
supplies on credit to settlers was the main line, whereas the buying 
and selling of the partly improved farms was rather a side line, 
although the volume of such business was considerable. This firm 
was really a sort of brokerage concern in the buying of livestock, 
farm implements, and other kinds of supplies at wholesale and 
furnishing them to settlers on much longer terms of credit than the 
settlers could secure if they borrowed money on personal security 
from banks. The livestock was sold on terms of one-third of the 
purchase price down and the remainder in four equal payments 
over a period of two years. 
Particularly in its dealings in livestock and other supplies the 
concern was fulfilling a very real need in the region where many 
settlers had bought land from concerns which did not assume the 
responsibility of supplying developmental credit. The credit busi- 
ness of the company was underwritten by one or more of the large 
city banks. The firm was therefore able to borrow the money more > 
cheaply on its well-established credit than the settlers could bor- 
row it from credit agencies in the cut-over region; consequently the 
firm made a margin of profit, but was in no sense doing a loan-shark 
business because its terms of credit were reasonable. Its real-estate 
business, based on long experience and special knowledge of the 
region, took the form of picking out the special bargains that were 
offered and disposing of them to persons known to be wishing to 
purchase. The firm refused to handle sandy lands and confined 
itself strictly to clay loam land. It also confined its operations closely 
to regions in which it was familiar with the land, the farming con- 
ditions, and the characteristics of the settlers. 
LARGE SPECULATIVE LAND WHOLESALERS AND JOBBERS 
Several of the concerns studied represent a type of operator more 
prominent and influential some years ago than at present. These 
are the large land wholesalers or jobbers who bought enormous 
tracts of land from the railways, lumber companies, and other large 
owners and resold them in wholesale lots, either to those who 
wished to purchase a considerable tract for speculative holding or 
to dealers who proposed to resell in retail lots. Some of these con- 
cerns sold smaller tracts to small speculators, and even to prospec- 
tive settlers, but they were principally significant as middlemen be- 
tween the large landowners and the smaller real-estate operators. 
One of these concerns bought 700,000 acres at one time ‘and 
sold the greater part of this holding in about 1,400 lots, mostly to 
speculators and real-estate concerns. Much of this land was sold to 
well-to-do western farmers on easy terms. At one time this con- 
cern had 1,600 agents scattered throughout the Middle West selling 
land to farmers who wished to speculate in the eut-over land but 
who did not expect to settle on it, at least for some time to come. 
Another similar concern had specialized i in selling cut-over land to 
small speculators and had cleared about $200, 000 in three years at 
this business. It was stated, however, by the manager that this 
game was about played out, and for the most part the concerns men- 
