Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1916-10-13

Bill Davis, the secretary of your Ma
tonal Farm Loan Association, and |
introduces himself with a letter of |
credentials as the Federal Land Bank
appraiser - the "carpetbagger," as
Bill calls him.
Next day he gets a livery team
and driver and starts to visit your
ten farms. He can't inspect over two |
farms day for they are scattered all
over two townships and so it takes
him nearly a week to get all around |
your ten, and you can see how it is
going to take a long time for the
carpetbaggers to appraise all the
farms to be mortgaged in America.
f. This chap takes a lot of notes in
his book and asks you all lot of
questions about what you raised each |
year for the last five years, and how
much stock you keep-not double LA
bility stock but real four-footed crit /
ters-and a string of fool questions
about rotation and fertilizer and deep
blowing, just as if he knew how to
farm better than you did. He doesn't
tell you what he is going to appraise
your farm at, and that's all you want
to know from him. Why, he woulnd't
know a Poland China hen from a
Plymouth dairy sire and if he tried
to plow, like as not he'd go backwards.
So you ten farmers wink and laugh |
behind his back, until the smart |
carpetbagger shakes hansd and de-
parts.
Ten days more go by, and then the
secretary gets another letter from
Al rbn VS.
he regrets that the appraiser was
obliged to report that all your ap-
praisals we're thirty per cent. too
high and that Tom Edgely's and your
own were forty per cent. too high. 1t
would be necessary, therefore, to re-
fuse the loans to an yof the ten men, |
bers without a re-appraisal by the
committee of the Farm Loan Associa- |
ton within the maximum limit set by
the banks appraiser-that carpetbag- |
ger, you know. 1t does not soothe !
you to be informed by Squire Brown
that you have to pay the cost of
having that carpetbagger appraise
your farms.
You hold a meeting and "cuss" that
carpetbagger, but that doesn't get
you your loan, so, by majority vote,
you instruct your appraisal commit
tee to try again. About that time
Tom Ergely gets mad. He's a hair
trigger sort of fellow, and he pulls
out of the Farm Loan Association and
gets his loan through Squire Brown,
but the rest of you decide to go ahead.
Then the banker writes you that
nine farmers cannot form a Farm
L L. a.,
or more. You can't persuade Tom
Edgely to come back, for Squire
Brown already has his signed appli-
cation, and that binds him.. There
don't seem to be any other farmers
who want to borrow except Widow
Nelson and she wants only $500 and
that won't make up your total of $780,
900.
So it is all off for several weeks,
but just about Christmas another
neighbor turns up for loan of $4,000
to enable him to buy the farm next to
his, and after another delayed trip
by the carpetbagger, his appraisal is
4 o. KID and your Farm Loan Asso-
citation is ready to go ahead. All ap-
praisals are satisfactory to the bank,
now, though some of you feel insulted
by the value they put on your land.
Now surely you expect your loan to
go through, so you will get your cash
before spring plowing-in fact, you
look for it in a few days, for the ap-
praisals are accepted. But on Wash
ington's birthday, the secretary gets
a note from the banker that the Fed
eral examiner Of titles had discover
ed that Sam Sticks great grandfather
I had given a mortgage on this farm
which had not been paid when he
died. The administrator of the great
grandfather's estate made division
of all property and this farm fell to
Sans grandfather subject to the
mortgage. Later the grandfather
paid the mortgage but never put the
satisfaction of mortgage on record
and there is no proof that he really
paid it. Some years afterwards, the
administrator was closing up his af-
fairs with the great grandfather's es=
tate, and, knowing that the mortgage
had been paid, in the general settling
: up Of the estate, he filed for record,