Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1883-04-26
The Indebtedness Farmers.
The American Cultlyator.

CDCcU ldTlnCTS sec clearly tue many
objections to incurring Indebtedness,
the younger and more progressive
classes, looking at the same subject
| through an atmosphere of hOpefuIness.
make themselves believe that the ad-
vantages TO be secured through the use
of borrowed money more than offset
its acknowledged dangers. Consider
ing the different stand-points of these
two classes each may be right in the
conclusions evolved. 1t is certainly
questionable policy for any man much
past middle life heavily to burden him
self with debts, though, as in all other
rules, there may be important eXcep-
tions. On the other hand, with Young
men the case is very different. Some
thing may fairly be credited to the en-
ergy of youth, rs also to the rapid
progress in wealth which this grand
republic is making, and in which the
owners of all desirable properties must
share. Examples are numerous where
the rise in values of desirable real
estate has made men wealthy almost
without effort. In such cases men who
have been for years burdened by debts
have been made richer than they could
have hoped to become simply by an
investment of their actual capital. The
fact that the country has only lately re-
covered from an era when prices were
inflated by deprecated currency makes
this general tendency less obvious.
Probably some who plunged heavily in
debt during those times of deprecated
money are now cramped since the
,t,.t~ h.,., In. 1,p
But this does not alter the fact that
whoever buys wisely may fairly expect
that his real estate will in the long run
tend to increase rather than depreciate
in value.
With respect to land actually worked
as farms the owner has the important
additional advantage of having its
value largely under his own control.
BY good management it is always
possible for him to yearly increase its
productive capacity. In proportion as
this increased production is accomplish
ed so is the market value of the farm
property regulated. If it may be said
that property is really worth toits owner
what it Will sell for, to a still greater
extent is it true that farm is worth
price upon which it may be made to
pay good interest. The farmer who
gets heavily in debt is by that very fact
under the greater necessity of making
his land more productive. IT he
accomplishes this the larger area he
cultivates, and therefore the more
largely he is in debt the greater will be
his profits. Many farmer finds as
he Is growing in years, with perhaps
half dozen sons and daughters to
divide the old homestead, that he has
not land enough. The same good man
agement and economy which have
enabled him to pay for his farm Of
fifty acres, would have given him one
of double or treble that size. The cX-
pense of family living, tools, teams and
the like is much greater propOrtiOnaly
on n small than on Il large farm. III the
farmer is good manager, but has
limited capital, the larger the farm he
can thoroughly till the more certain
will be his chance of success in paying
for it. This is the reason why some
farmers succeed in paying for large
farms, while others with smaller areas
are never out of debt. On the
small farm there is but little hope
of realizing any surplus above the
cost of living, while on the large farm,
properly managed, there is some hope
of fair margin above expenses, upon
which alone the profits depend.
In no ease, however, can farmers
afford to 90 in debt for more land than
they can profitably work. 1t is this
rather than debt itself which is the
bane of most American farmers. If
they have had the temerity to run heav-
lily in debt for large farms, they should,
in justice to themselves, increase the
debt to the amount needed to make the