Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 1 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881Russell, William Howard, Sir
History
Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 1 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881
Russell, William Howard, Sir
United States -- Description and travel
The terms of sale are different. First, there is No. 1, or eleven
years' credit, with 7 per cent. interest. Let us take a farm of 160
acres, at $5 per acre, bought on the 1st of April, 1882. The first
payment of one-tenth of the principal and 7 per cent. interest on the
remainder, in all $130 40c., must be made at the time of
purchase--that is 26_l._ In April the following year the payment is
only the 7 per cent. interest, and the same for the second year,
namely, $50 40c. for each year. On the third year one-tenth of the
principal, with 7 per cent. on the balance, amounting to $124 80c.,
and so on each succeeding year, so that in 1893 the man would become
the owner of his plot of 160 acres, for which he would have paid $800
principal and $352 80c. interest--total, $1152 80c., or 225_l._ In the
six years' credit, or No. 2 term, the first payment is made, at date
of purchase, of one-sixth principal and 7 per cent.; the second payment
is interest only; and in the subsequent year one-sixth of the sum and
7 per cent. interest, and so on; but the Company will give a discount
from the appraised prices of 20 per cent. under these circumstances.
On two years' credit they allow 30 per cent., the payments being three
in number; the first, a third of the principal at the time of
purchase, with 10 per cent. interest on the balance, and that balance
being paid in two annual instalments. So with the same farm under this
system, on term No. 3, the farmer will pay $560 for securing 160 acres
of land, and $56 interest, or $616 altogether--about 123_l._ Where the
whole amount of the purchase money is paid down a discount of 33-1/3
per cent. is made, so that one can become the owner of 160 acres for
$533 33c.; or, if payments are made in advance of maturity, and deed
taken up, purchasers on long credit will be allowed a liberal
discount. There were still about 1,105,000 acres of land to be let,
varying in price from $4 an acre in Sedgewick County, to $1 50c. in
Stafford, Pawnee, &c.
Droughty Kansas, as it is called, was smitten severely last year, but
it is hoped that at least twenty will elapse before the State is
afflicted by a similar visitation; and the rain-belt is said to be
travelling westward in the past twenty-five years, each increase of
acreage cultivated adding to the moisture store, and the capacity of
the soil increasing the evaporation.
Travellers like ourselves must depend greatly upon hearsay for any
information that we can derive respecting the resources of the country
through which we are going.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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