‘Ih* RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
223 
Ah Ontario County, A. Y., H ovum's Sheen. Fig. (Sec next page.) 
The Second Mort^a^e and Federal Farm Loan 
The Story of a Renter Who Became Owner 
A FIXED PREJUDICE.-—Some months ago The 
It. N.-Y. published a letter from me relative to 
the working of our local farm loan association. The 
letter introduced me to several dozens of people who 
took occasion to write their own experiences in get¬ 
ting farm loans through or having them refused, 
one factor in the system of farm financing was 
brought out time and again in the several letters, 
which has given us much trouble, and to questions 
pertinent I could write no satisfactory prescription 
as a cure-all. That factor is the second mortgage. 
Personally, I -believe in second mortgages; I think 
that they are all right, and 1 have a very interesting 
discourse which proves to the satisfaction of every¬ 
one except the diseoursee that a second mortgage is 
gilt-edged and in every way as desirable as a first 
mortgage. The said discourse takes care of every 
possible contingency that may arise affecting the 
second mortgage, hut there is one thing that it does 
not do, and that is to make the second mortgage a 
first lien. We are prejudiced against second mort¬ 
gages in this country, and for why I do not know. 
I do not believe that one dollar has been lost to a 
second mortgagor in this county for five years, but 
still we don’t like them. 
I'T B LICIT Y NEEDED. 1 —As I see it, there is only 
one way to popularize second mortgages for invest¬ 
ment, and that way is by publicity. We can all see 
tlie need of second paper for the financing of efficient 
young farmers and efficient tenant farmers, and we 
know that when loss to first mortgagors is computed 
with loss to second mortgagors the credit balance is 
in favor of the second mortgagor. If the experience 
of holders of second mortgages is good, why does 
the prejudice exist? It seems to me that the answer 
to the question is, because of lack of information on 
the subject. We have floated 12 second mortgages 
since January 1. 1918, and of the 12 not one has had 
a cent of interest overdue, four have been paid off 
before maturity, and only one has asked for an 
extension of time on any payment of principal. In 
this poor crop year four more will be paid off at the 
next interest date, each of which is not yet due for 
from one to five years. 
THE HUMAN INTEREST.—Our experiences with 
second mortgage from a human interest standpoint 
run the gauntlet of emotions from the ridiculous to 
the pitiful. The story of Johnson and his second 
mortgage is typical of most of our second mortgages. 
and is just a plain everyday tale of what the right 
man will do if given the right chance. I am going 
to tell you the story, which is true in every detail, 
except Johnson’s name, and trust that The It. N.-Y. 
will publish it. I hope that it will prompt some man 
or woman with money to invest, to take a chance 
with some bright young man. I assure you that it 
is an experience which will prove to be most grati¬ 
fying to your sense of business judgment. Johnson 
came to Prince Edward County in March, 1916, 
with a wife, three children, a borrowed mule, a 
wagon, a few chairs, bedding, a Dixie plow, side¬ 
swipe cultivator. $28.79, and a recollection of having 
seen the sun rise and set from the field on every 
working day for 20 of his 27 years of life, an un¬ 
limited confidence in himself to make good if he 
had half a chance, and a faith in the Christian 
religion. If Johnson had anything else of value 
it was not in evidence. 
ALLOCATING A HABITATION.—Using a word 
that our abstractor loves to use. the first thing 
that Johnson did was to allocate a habitation. The 
second event of note was a visit from old John 
Henry Stork. After that events moved in rapid suc¬ 
cession, but they were ail everyday events, and not 
one was of the kind that could be called fortunate. 
Johnson’s rented house was the ordinary kind of 
cottage in which hundreds of tenant farmers have 
made a start—up or down. Surrounding the cottage 
was a tobacco barn, a small stable and chicken coop, 
and 50 acres of land, partly cleared. The land was 
just a little better than the kind which will not 
sprout black-eyed peas. That was Johnson’s start 
in Prince Edward County. Not by any means as 
bad as it might have been; however, Johnson did 
not object, so why should you? Now if you know 
anything about bright tobacco you have already dis¬ 
covered the plot to this tale. For the benefit of the 
uninitiated, the key to the plot is in the poor land, 
the tobacco barn and Johnson’s sunrise habit 
WORKING AGAINST DEBT.—During the Spring 
and Summer Johnson added one item to his posses¬ 
sions, which was debt—fertilizer debt, hay and corn 
debt and rations debt. Probably he paid about 20 
per cent more than the cash price for the purchases 
for which the debt was evidence, and, too, probably 
he paid two or three times the legal rate of interest 
for the privilege of having a debt. But regardless 
of all these little obstacles Johnson started a crop. 
He put out 25,000 tobacco hills (which is our way 
of saying five acres), 10 or 12 acres of corn, a patch 
of sorghum, a small garden, and 'nothing else of 
note. He made 15 barrels of corn (that’s 75 bushels) 
and four curings of tobacco. You know that when 
four curings of tobacco are made in one barn in one 
year the barn is just naturally busy, and five or six 
days of 24 hours each for curing do not allow the 
barn much time to cool off, and incidentally Johnson 
did not sleep as late of mornings during tobacco 
cutting and curing as some people, and he was up 
just as late of nights as some other people. When 
a barn is hung full of tobacco and fire is put in the 
flue eyes, a man’s eyes have to watch the fire, the 
leaf, the stem and the weather during the entire 
curing period, otherwise the bright yellow color will 
be lost and likewise your high price. 
B HIGH T E R PROSPECTS. — Johnson’s crop 
weighed 2.400 lbs., and his average price was 37 
cents. He paid up his bills and their gathered in¬ 
terest and started the year of 1917 with $350 in 
cash. His borrowed mule had, been paid for and 
another pought on time. The years of 1917 and 1918 
were repetitious of 1916, excepting that the family 
did not have to live quite as tight, the clothing for 
each was gradually getting better, and the family 
appearance was finally neat. Johnson’s neighbors 
and merchants began taking notice of Johnson’s 
crops, Johnson’s mules, Johnson's neatly dressed 
wife and children and of Johnson himself. He had 
developed from a down-at-heel drifter to a reliable 
tenant, and several landlords approached him with 
a 1918 and 1919 proposition, but Johnson still worked 
the 50-acre farm. 
BUYING WITHOUT CAPITAL.—Johnson had 
arrived, he had made himself a reputation and pre¬ 
pared to capitalize his reputation. Early in*1918' 
he located a farm of 60 acres, having a good five- 
room cottage and a poor stable, 15 acres of open 
land and a good well, the price being $2,500. He 
came to tin* Farm Loan Association’s office for advice 
as to how he could get the farm and not have to pay 
out any of Ills $500 capital. To fully appreciate 
Johnson’s story you must know something of the 
land which he proposed to buy. li was in a section 
of Prince Edward County about which we formerly 
made silly jokes about a crow carrying rations when 
traveling over it. It was on a sandy ridge that grew 
black-jack oaks, broom sedge and suchlike iu a half- 
