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behind in his payments to the bank to such an extent that he decided to let his interest go. He gave the bank a deed in March, 1932, which was recorded in December of that year. W still was living on the farm and thought he still might swing the deal if he could get a federal land bank loan. Foreclosure was had to clear the title and W now owns the farm and the Bank of North Dakota is out of the picture, the land bank having made a loan on the property. L lost a lot. The Bank of North Dakota lost a little. Mr. and Mrs. J got a loan of $800 on 160 acres near Arena in September, 1929, and it was foreclosed on July 25, 1933, on two of several past-due instalments. They had paid only one instalment of $60 and had let the taxes slide. They gave the bank consent to foreclose. Purchase of the land by J in the first place apparently was a speculation. He never lived on the place and never paid anything on two inferior mortgages. The land was purchased from the receiver of state banks at the time J got the $800 loan, a natural inference being that this was part of the purchase price. The receiver took a second mortgage for the balance. Began Back in 1919 This particular piece of land has been knocking about since 1919, when the Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Driscoll foreclosed on one F. In 1924 it was sold to K, who deeded it back the same year, apparently one of those deals in which bankers have been known to participate but which are more or less a mystery to the general public. It may not be true in this case, but banks have been known to do such things in order to have their paper in good shape to show the bank examiner. At any rate, the deed given by K back to the bank was filed in 1926. Foreclosure was had again to insure the title and in 1927 it came to the bank receiver. The foreclosure didn't worry Mr. and Mrs. J. They still have their home place and are not interested in floating the deal again through a federal loan. More Tragic Case Noted The case of Mr. and Mrs. H is different only in its details but is more tragic. They bought 160 acres near Baldwin in December, 1915, but things apparently didn't go too well, despite the war boom, for in 1919 up popped a whole series of mortgages. On Nov. 20 of that year the Bank of North Dakota gave a first-mortgage loan of $1,800; one C took a secondmortgage loan of $1,500 and the Baldwin State Bank took a third mortgage for $3,317.45. All this happened within five days and it seems obvious that the Baldwin bank took the third mortage as some sort of security for bills it couldn't collect. In 1923, C foreclosed his second mortgage and took over the Bank of North Dakota first-mortgage, the Baldwin bank having closed in the meantime and its equity being worthless. Then C died and the property was left without management. The Bank of North Dakota foreclosed it without protest and set about the task of selling it, if possible. H was held ineligible for a land bank loan because he lived too far from the place and besides he had other fish to fry by this time. An effort was made to get one of C's heirs to apply for a loan but on August 6 he said he didn't want anything to do with it. Meantime, H appeared in the bank's records in another place. In 1924 he moved to a farm near Bismarck, this being the time C's foreclosure matured. The plot was one of 80 acres. In 1928 he got a $1,100 loan from the Bank of North Dakota but he never paid all of the first instalment and has paid nothing since. No taxes were paid since 1928. Dced Obtained in 1933 The property was foreclosed in 1932 and deed was obtained in 1933. The property has been refinanced by the federal land bank which advanced $1,600 on a first and second mortgage, the latter being a commissioner's loan. The Bank of North Dakota got out of its second deal with H by accepting $1,259.34 for an
