1013. 
THE LAND SHARKS AND CREDITS. 
Some years ago I was working with a large prod¬ 
uce concern, and they supplied the larger truckers 
on open account with feed, fertilizer and anything 
they handled, at regular prices, making no charge for 
advancing or interest; in return, the trucker gave the 
house that supplied him on open account the prefer¬ 
ence at the same price, or in case of shortage of sup¬ 
ply, saw they got what he had for sale; in case of 
surplus, his produce was taken in preference to those 
not regular customers. The scheme worked well for 
all concerned. There are retailers here who do most 
of their business with the smaller truckers and coun¬ 
trymen, and where conditions warrant run regular 
open or book accounts with them. Many large and 
small truckers and market gardeners have as good 
credit accommodations as any class of people, and 
usually have a settlement at the wind-up of the heavy 
shipping season. There are of course many farmers 
who have no credit, either because they do not need' 
it and have not established it, or because, like other 
people, they have nothing to base it on, or have had 
it and not protected it. As to a new man coming 
here and expecting credit, if he has property as a 
basis of it and can show a clean record from his 
home where lie has protected his credit, there is no 
reasonable ground to doubt he 
could make satisfactory arrange¬ 
ments with reputable merchants 
to open an account with him. 
A new man, on the other hand, 
coming in as a pioneer, one not a 
practical farmer, but from fac¬ 
tory or shop, who has listened 
to the siren song of the land’ 
sharks and let their fairy tales 
soak into his mind, who has taken 
his little life savings and made 
the first payment, usually a fourth 
or fifth of the purchase price, on 
a piece of land (usually $10 or 
$15 land), at from $50 to $100 per 
acre, does not offer an attractive 
credit risk. It is true he may 
wake up, usually with a jolt, and 
make good, that is, if the land 
sharks will give him the chance, 
but as a rule they are about as 
considerate as a vampire, and us¬ 
ually wind up with all the vic¬ 
tim's blood. If he bought land 
at what it was worth, he might 
possible get some credit from his 
nearest merchant who could see 
what he was doing, but if mixed 
up with a land promoting lay-out, 
he has about as much chance as 
a watermelon at a colored picnic 
to come out whole, and the mer¬ 
chants know it, and have seen 
plenty like him before, so do not 
care to open an account. Too 
many of the settlers the land 
sharks bring down lose out and 
go home disgusted, and leave 
their hopes and unpaid bills be¬ 
hind, if they have any. If a set¬ 
tler wants to establish a credit, a 
land promotion colony is the last 
place to start. He is, as a rule, 
regarded as about as good a credit 
risk as a gambler would be as guardian for orphans’ 
money. If he pays out and is straight, reasonable 
credit will be due him, and he can surely get it when 
his land is clear and the land company has not a first 
claim. The successful merchant has no delusions 
and does not gamble on those of others. There is 
no philanthropy in business here. The merchants are 
out for desirable business and good credit risks; a 
good risk gets the goods and a bad one pays cash. 
Southern Alabama. r. e. k. 
“RURAL CREDITS” IN VIRGINIA. 
The R. N.-Y. asks for facts as to farm loans. I 
give you what happened to my nearest neighbor last 
week. She is a woman whose uncle died recently, 
leaving her alone with a very nice little truck farm, 
but in debt. It was necessary to raise $750. An agent 
agreed to procure it for her on payment of $50 as a 
bonus! The application was made to a local bank. 
One of the directors wrote to me to know if the place 
was security for the sum asked. I replied that $1,600 
cash had been offered by a friend of mine, and the 
place would sell at auction for more than $1,000. The 
loan was made, $800. Of this $50 goes to the agent, 
$48 (the interest at six per cent) is taken in ad¬ 
vance, and the lady gets a little less than $700 when 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
papers are made out and recorded. Yet consider she 
is to pay interest during three years on $800! This 
case fairly represents conditions here 20 miles below 
Washington, and elsewhere generally. The house 
where I am writing was originally part of my farm, 
but sold out 30 years ago, with five acres of good 
land. It was improved by purchaser and was held at 
$1,800. The owner mortgaged it later for $500 on 
three years’ time. A default caused it to be sold last 
year at public sale. The owner tried in vain for 
months to get a loan to pay off the first, but could not. 
I bought it in at a sale, bidding against five competi¬ 
tors, and paying $900 cash. The buildings cost $1,000, 
and a fine orchard, yielding 200 barrels of market 
fruit annually, is worth easily another $1,000. 
One-half of all the land in the county has been sold 
from the owners by this process since I came here 
43 years ago. Short time loans at six per cent have 
broken up hundreds of homes and scattered the fam¬ 
ilies. Most of them have gone to the cities, often to 
ruin, or at best to hard labor, unskilled as they were 
to city life. It is a long succession of sad experi¬ 
ences and tragedies, all for want of a rational mone¬ 
tary system. The people are at last stirred and ask¬ 
ing for relief. But while uneasy and in mood to hit 
somebody, their ignorance and blind selfishness makes 
organization difficult. The intelligent selfishness that 
forces the great captains of industry to combine 
against destructive competition is wanted now, right 
here, to make any loan system a success. Greeley 
said, “Cooperation is the word of hope for humanity, 
but it must be learned at school.” edward Daniels. 
Fairfax Co., Va. 
CHEAP LANDS IN NEW YORK. 
In reply to several Western readers who inquire 
about the widely advertised cheap farms of Xew 
York, and ask advice as to investing in them, we 
wish to say that land in New York, as elsewhere, 
with those rare exceptions found everywhere, and 
known as bargains, sells for what it is worth. If one 
purchases land in this State for $15, $50, or $100 per 
acre, he may expect to get land worth those prices, 
and no more. 
There are many factors entering into that com¬ 
posite whole known as the value of land, productivity 
being only one of them. Desirability of location as to 
distance from the farm market, and ease of access to 
it, and to the centres of social activity, the schools and 
the churches, is another. Here possibly to a greater 
degree than in the West, farms are looked upon as 
homes for the rearing of families rather than as in¬ 
6© 
vestments of capital upon which a certain percentage 
may be realized. The expense of working the land, 
taking into consideration not only the value of a crop 
which may be produced upon it, but the relation of 
that value to the cost of producing the crop, is also 
a large factor frequently overlooked by those who 
compare Eastern and Western prices. The prices 
of Eastern farms have been more stable than those 
of the West, and less of the element of speculation 
enters into their value. Farmers of the Middle West 
have been able in the last generation to acquire a 
competency simply by retaining their holdings and 
harvesting the unearned increment which increased 
demand has brought to them. This has not been true 
of the East, for, until within the last few years at 
least, farms have decreased rather than advanced in 
value. With the rapid rise in value of Western realty, 
however, there has become evidently a reflex increase 
in that of Eastern farms, and many are sold to-day 
at good prices that 12 to 15 years ago would have 
gone begging in the market. 
It is still true that many New York farms can be 
purchased for what it would cost to replace the build¬ 
ings upon them. A neighbor of mine sold his farm 
a few days ago to an Iowa farmer for $6,000. That 
sum would hardly build the handsome house and large 
barns upon the place, and the 
something more than 100 acres of 
land might be considered as a 
gift to the purchaser of the im¬ 
provements. Less desirable farms 
upon the hills several miles back 
from town may often be pur¬ 
chased for from $15 to $30 per 
acre, some of them having good 
buildings upon them, though these 
buildings are almost invariably 
badly out of repair and necessi¬ 
tate an outlay of at least several 
hundred dollars to put them in 
good condition. These prices 
seem low to a Westerner who has 
read of the proximity of these 
lands to the great Eastern mar¬ 
kets, and the possibilities of pro¬ 
duction that lie in the soil when 
properly managed, and it is no 
wonder that many are attracted to 
the East, and that real estate 
agents are coining money by ad¬ 
vertising and selling these farms. 
Unfortunately many of these pur¬ 
chasers are sadly disappointed 
when they attempt to realize upon 
their investments. In some cases 
they find that while the land is 
capable of producing good crops, 
it is of such character or location 
as to make it difficult and expen¬ 
sive to work, and that reliable 
farm help at reasonable prices 
cannot be obtained. In other 
cases the soil has been so ex¬ 
hausted by continuous cropping 
without adequate return in fer¬ 
tilizers that it will not make a 
profitable return for the labor ex¬ 
pended upon it, and must be built 
up at great expense in time, labor, 
and money, before it will yield a 
living income. What does it profit 
a man to sell land for $100 an acre, and purchase 
other at $40, if, in order to make the latter worth 
$100, he is compelled to spend $60 upon it? 
But there are good farms in New York that, com¬ 
pared with those in the corn belt, are really cheap. 
These are not to be purchased for a song, however. 
The Western man with from two to six thousand 
dollars to invest in land will find better opportunities 
here than in the corn belt, but don't buy a farm from 
a real estate dealer’s descriptive list without seeing it. 
The writer picked up the descriptive list of farms 
for sale issued by the State Department of Agricul¬ 
ture a few days ago, and, turning to those listed from 
his own locality, read the pleasing description of a 
neighbor's farm. It was true, every word of it, but 
the owner had neglected to add to the list of desirable 
features mentioned that three-fourths of the farm 
stood so nearly upon edge that he is jokingly credited 
with farming both sides of it. 
Look over the listed properties with the agents, and, 
after listening to their stories, dismiss them and go 
to the neighbors for further information. The agents 
will tell you of all the desirable features of the place; 
that’s their business. The neighbors will quickly 
point out the undesirable ones; that’s human nature. 
Between the two you may be able to form a fair 
estimate of your own, but before investing your all 
in a new and strange locality, rent a farm for a year; 
either the one you think of buying or another, m. b. d. 
