American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man .”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 114 
For the Week Ending November 8, 1924 
Number 19 
Curbing the Land Shark 
A State-wide License Law, with Teeth in It, Needed 
I N 1922 two million people left the farm. The 
cross current during the same year carried 
eight hundred and eighty thousand back to 
the land. Whether the shrinkage in our 
farm population by over a million in a single year 
is a bane or a boon, is outside of the scope of this 
discussion. It is evident, however, that though 
the drift from the farm is heavy, there is also a 
strong current in the other direction. The fact 
that at a time when farming was perhaps at its 
lowest ebb, when the plight of the farmers was 
being lamented throughout the land, only little 
short of a million people exchanged city for farm, 
proves that farming is still the 
goal toward which the energies of .. 
many city people are directed. 
Whether the number will grow 
or diminish, whether or not it will 
be sufficient to offset the tide 
cityward, farming will always 
remain the magnet toward which 
many city workers, many toilers 
in shop, factory or foundry, will 
be attracted. 
The purpose of this article is to 
consider the first step which all 
such entrants into farming must 
take—the purchase of the farm. 
Being the first step it is, in a 
sense, the most important. Many ; 
a farm failure is directly trace¬ 
able to the injudicious selection or improper pur¬ 
chase of the farm. Too often a farm is bought with 
little or no regard to its agricultural possibilities'and 
little or no study of whether it can be made to pro¬ 
duce an income large enough to cover overhead and 
family maintenance. Too many people weigh the 
matter in the same way as the purchase of city 
real estate, considering merely intrinsic value. 
They overlook the important fact that unlike city 
property—bought mostly as a home, an invest¬ 
ment, or a speculation—a farm must be able to 
carry itself and afford a means ot support for the 
operator’s family. Under the best of. circum¬ 
stances, the matter demands the utmost deliber¬ 
ation. There are many angles from which it must 
be viev r ed. The problem is intensified by the 
fraudulent methods practiced to inveigle farm 
buyers. This article is not intended to deal with 
the general subject of farm purchases, but to 
sound a note of warning against the farm vulture, 
and to point a way by which it is hoped his wings 
can be clipped. 
The cupidity of land sharks and the rapacity of 
dishonest real estate speculators are responsible 
for many a wrecked farming enterprise. Farm 
buyers, especially of the immigrant classes, are 
mulcted out of large sums of money by pirates 
who are ever ready to prey upon them. Not 
alone are farms'sold at inflated prices, but gross 
misrepresentation is indulged in as to the character 
of the soil, its productive possibilities, the crops to 
which it is adapted, marketing conditions, etc. 
Exorbitant rates of commission are charged and 
heavy bonuses are exacted lor the placement or 
renew r al of mortgages, even on prime security and 
for short periods. Mean advantage is taken in 
withholding knowledge of the terms of existing 
mortgages where they are unfavorable, or in 
actually misrepresenting them, and in fixing the 
terms of a purchase mortgage in such a manner as 
By GABRIEL DAVIDSON 
General Manager, The Jewish Agricultural Society, 
Inc. 
to make it a foregone conclusion that an early 
default will soon cause the farm to revert to the 
seller to be resold on the same impossible con¬ 
ditions. 
A case came to the knowdedge of the writer 
wdiere, after title had passed, it was discovered 
that a strip of land bordering on a state road had 
deliberately been left out of the deed of con¬ 
veyance. Another, in which it developed that a 
Investigate Him First 
O NE of the hopeful things about the deplorable situation described in the 
article on this page is that the good real estate men frown on questionable 
practices and are making an effort to drive the real estate sharks out of business. 
A recent meeting of farm real estate operators made a lengthy report on prog¬ 
ress that has been made in driving the land sharks out of business during the 
past year, and took steps to continue to use the force of their organization 
against unscrupulous real estate dealers. 
Of course, reputable dealers perform a real service. Often it is only through 
them that a farmer can sell his farm, and when the sale is made on busir\£ss 
principles, both the buyer and the seller benefit. 
In dealing with such men, one should take the same precautions that Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist is constantly calling attention to in our Service Bureau, 
in regard to all dealers; that is, find out through your local banker or lawyer 
that the man through whom you wish to buy or sell your farm is honest with 
a reputation in the community for fair dealing. 
farm represented as consisting of twenty contigu¬ 
ous acres, comprised two separate ten acre 
parcels about three quarters of a mile apart. One 
of the most dastardly instances of crooked dealing 
brought to our attention was that, of a sufferer 
from tuberculosis for whom a fund of $1500 had 
been collected toward the purchase-of a farm. 
The farm was represented as being a mile from 
one village, two miles from another, four miles 
from the station, with a state road a half mile 
away. The prospective purchaser was told that a 
truck calls to collect the milk at a point a mile and 
a quarter from the farm. As a matter of fact the 
villages were four and seven miles distant, re¬ 
spectively, the railroad station was eleven miles 
from the farm, there was a road a half mile away 
but merely a dirt road, not a state road, and the 
point at which the milk truck called was four 
miles instead of a mile and a quarter away from 
the farm. The result was that the purchaser was, 
within less than a year, compelled to deed the 
farm back to the seller for a small consideration to 
prevent foreclosure. 
It is a sad commentary upon human nature 
that these offenses are committed, mostly by men 
of the same nativity as their victims, and what is 
worse, by those who underwent the same early 
struggles of adjustment to new-world conditions. 
Indeed, it is this common bond which is used by 
these glib-tongued fellows to ensnare their 
victims. Such harmful practices have their 
pernicious reactions not only-in that these hard¬ 
working people are filched of their savings but 
also that, after a futile struggle, they are thrown 
back upon the city, shorn of their means, robbed 
of their hopes, disgruntled and discouraged, to 
take up anew the burdens from which they 
toiled so hard to escape. The cause of agri¬ 
culture suffers. 
The Jewish Agricultural Society has for years 
been waging relentless warfare against these vipers. 
It caused the prosecution of malefactors, drove 
one such pirate by indictment out of the State of 
Massachusetts, and by means of a civil suit, 
compelled a band of swindlers to disgorge their 
ill-gotten gain which, in turn, was distributed 
among the victims. Acting the role of watch dog, it 
has nipped many a questionable deal in the bud. 
Its success, however, lay in preventing frauds 
rather than having punishment meted out for 
their commission. While this may be more desir¬ 
able, it is less effective in that it leaves the per¬ 
petrators free to continue their depredations. 
Prosecution in this class of cases, 
~ wdiether civil or criminal, is 
bound up with many legal in¬ 
tricacies. For one thing, the 
scenes of these transactions are 
in most cases laid in different 
counties, even in different states, 
and a conflict of jurisdiction is 
apt to arise. Moreover, these 
rascals, often advised by lawyers 
no more scrupulous than they, 
are clever enough to conceal evi¬ 
dence or to stop just short of the 
boundary line between what is 
legally legitimate and illegitimate. 
Criminal prosecution is even 
- harder than civil. The law wisely 
surrounds the accused with every 
safeguard. It is hard to forge legal evidence that 
will shut out all reasonable doubt. In a case in 
which a client of the Society was defrauded, the 
prosecutor, while admitting that the transaction 
bore every earmark of fraud, refused to entertain a 
complaint because he felt convinced that a con¬ 
viction could not be obtained. He even ex¬ 
pressed doubt that a civil suit for fraud could be 
maintained. 
Probably the most effective- means of com¬ 
bating this evil is provided by real estate licensing 
laws such as now exist in 15 or 16 states. These 
laws compel real estate brokers and salesmen to be 
licensed, and make the conduct of such business 
without a license a misdemeanor, subject to suit¬ 
able penalties. The New York law provides that 
every licensed real estate broker must maintain a 
definite place of business within the state; that 
the license be conspicuously displayed; that no 
action for unpaid commissions can be maintained 
by an unlicensed broker. The Commission may 
revoke the license of a real estate broker or sales¬ 
man, or suspend the same, upon conviction of the 
licensee of a violation of any provision of the 
license law, or if such licensee has been found 
guilty of fraud, or if he has demonstrated untrust¬ 
worthiness or incompetency to act in that 
capacity. In case the offender shall have received 
any sum of money as commission in consequence 
of his violation of any provisions of the law, he is 
liable to a penalty up to four times the amount 
received by him. A recent amendment to the 
law gives the Commission the right to apply a 
competency test of applicants for licenses, and 
an examination is soon to be held. 
It is to be regretted that the New York Law is 
not state-wide. It is applicable only to cities and 
to six counties. What logical basis exists for 
exempting the other counties from the provisions 
of the law is not apparent. (Continued on page 334) 
