The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1922-02-20
BATTLE SHOWS
T0SAYE FARMS
THR0UGHL0ANS
Appraisers Reports to Bank of
North Dakota Read Like
Pioneers Diary
GO TO ISOLATED SECTIONS

Making of farm loans, usually a
dra'b, staid business proceeding, is not
without excitement and adventure
while snow drifts block prairie roads
and the mercury hovers below zero.
Reports of appraisers for the Farm
Loan Department Of the Bank Of
North Dakota, who now are bucking
the snow drifts with total of $685.
$4,000 Of applications for farm loans
in their hands and instructions to
make the appraisals regardless of the
hardships entailed, read like a page
from a pioneers diary.
Seven appraisers of the Farm Loan
Department are now on the road, ad-
monished by Manager W. E. Default
and Chief Appraiser F. e. Curry to
work as fast as possible so that loans
may be made where the farmer faces
loss Of land. With vast amount of
preliminary work completed the Farm
Loan Department now is operating at
full speed and loans are being made
as fast as the appraisals, approval of
abstract, and other work incident to
completion of loans can be completed
In Nearly Every County
The appraisers are operating in vir-
tually every part Of the state, and
have been in every county in the
western slope district. Much of the
work necessarily is on branch rail-
road lines, and many of these lines
have been tied up by snow drifts.
One appraiser wrote that he had
gone 1S miles in the country with
the thermometer % below, with roads
SO bad that the team had to walk all
Of the way. 1t took all day to get to
the farm and make the appraisal, and
the appraiser then travelled nearly all
night getting back to town.
Another appraiser. who left the
bank on Feb. 8, wrote on the 18th:
"Just. arrived home this morning. I
presume you heard that our train did
not get through and that We were
showed in at Max until Sunday after
noon when a snow plow took us into
Drake" One appraiser, writing in
good-natured vein of his hard trip,
said that when he arrived at a farm
he was to appraise he was so cold
that he could not distinguish, by feel
ing, the difference between his pencils
and the farmers pitch forks.
TO Cheat Foreclosures
"Nevertheless," said Mr.. Curry, "and
in spite of the hardships, the bank and
it's appraisers and other employees are
bending every effort to get to those
farms where the foreclosures of last
winter and spring are maturing, thus
bringing the one-year period OF re-
demption to maturity before the
weather gets favorable and the roads
passable SO that more appraisals ma!
be made in locality when the ap'
| praiser arrives. AS it is now a hur
ried "once over is given each locality
where the foreclosure redemption
| period has been SO urgent that th'
hank has felt forced to send its ap
| praiser, and the less urgent cases ar
! allowed to await better travelling con
/ ditions, also giving the appraiser al
opportunity to get on to the next tow
where the need of quick relief is al
| absolute necessity"
The federal farm loan bank Of 81
Paul will not appraise land durin
the winter, but Manager Default @
the state department and the Indus
trial Commission have felt the nee
essity of making appraisals now j
order to save, many farms.
The total amount Of farm loan ar
plications on hand now is over 81
100000. This is in excess of tn
amount of money that the departme1
is authorized to loan under the pre-:
ent laws. Many of the application
it is expected, will be reduced an
some withdrawn.