Chap. 363.—An ACT to Secure Advances for Agricultural Purposes.

Approved April 2, 1873.

1. Be it enacted by the géneral assembly of Virginia, That
if any person or persons shall make any advance or advances,
either in money or supplies, to any person or persons who are
engaged in, or who are about to engage in the cultivation of
the soil, the person or persons so making such advance or ad-
vances shall be entitled to lien on the crops which may be
made during the year upon the land in the cultivation of which
the advances so made have been or were intended to have been
expended, to the extent of such advance or advances: pro-
vided, however, that an agreement in writing shall be entered
into before any such advance is made to that effect, in which
shall be specified the amount to be advanced, or in which a
limit shall be fixed beyond which the advance or advances made
from time to time during the year shall not go; which agree-
ment shall be recorded in the clerk's office of the county in
which the land lies, in the manner in which deeds are required
by law to be recorded.

Yo. That if any person or persons to whom such advances
have been made shall be about to sell or dispose of said crops,
without having paid or secured to be paid such advance or ad-
vances, or in any way to defeat the lien hereinbefore provided
for, it shall be lawful for a court having equity jurisdiction in
said county, or any judge thereof in vacation, to restrain such
person or persons from making such sale or disposition, or in
any way defeating such lien, and such decrees or orders may
be made according to the practice of courts of equity for
securing the payment and satisfaction of the same as equity
may require in the premises.

3. The lien hereinbefore provided for shall not effect in any
manner the rights of landlords to their proper share of rents,
or right of distress, nor any liens existing at the time of the
making of the agreement in the first section of this act men-
tioned, such as are required by law to be recorded, and shall
at the date of said agreement be recorded, or lodged for record,
as required by law, nor shall it effect the rights of the party to
whom the advances may have been made to claim such part of
his crops as is now exempt from levy or distress for rent.
4. This act shall be in force from its passage.