These letters scattered through western Norway from 1830 to 1840, were as seed sown in good ground. Times were hard; money was scarce and its value fluctuating.[45] The crops were often short, the prices of grain were high, and the demand for the labor of the peasants was weak; the economic conditions of the lower classes, especially in the rural districts--much the greater part of the country--were growing worse rather than better.[46] Even the oldest son, who was heir to his father's homestead, was likely to find himself possessed of a debt-burdened estate and with the necessity of providing for the mother and numerous younger children.[47] The younger sons, being still worse off, were forced to try their hands at various occupations to earn a bare living. Ole Nattestad, already mentioned, was by turns before his emigration farmer, peddler, blacksmith, and sheep-buyer.[48] To many a man with a large family of growing children the possibility of disaster in the United States was less forbidding than the probability of ultimate failure in Norway. [45] _Billed Magazin_, I, 18-19. Of the year 1836, one writer asserts: "En Daler ei gjældt mere end to norske Skilling," and that many lost all their property. [46] In Anderson, _Norwegian Immigration_, 133-135, is a translation of a letter written in Hellen in Norway, May 14, 1836: "If good reports come from them (certain emigrants about to sail) the number of emigrants will doubtless be still larger next year. A pressing and general lack of money enters into every branch of business, stops, or at least hampers business, and makes it difficult for many people to earn the necessaries of life. While this is the case on this side of the Atlantic, there is hope of abundance on the other, and this, I take it, is the chief cause of this growing disposition to emigrate." [47] _Billed Magazin_, I, 6 ff. [48] _Ibid._, I, 83.