SECRETARY'S REPORT. f 



bor, and his guess leads him to a certain loss at each successive trial. In the 

 matter of hay, profit and loss is just reversed in the cases supposed; the latter 

 can produce hay at six dollars per ton, while the same crop costs the former, 

 fourteen dollars. Yet neither of them know this wide difference, and each 

 one jogs on in the same old ruts, losing by one crop what he gains upon the 

 other; grumbling, all the while, to himself and to those about him that 

 "farming is a hard business." Now were these two farmers to calculate the 

 cost by keeping an account with their crops, each one would soon learn where 

 his true profit lies. So in many other brandies of farm industry ; what may 

 be done with profit by one, is, by force of his surroundings, attended by loss 

 to another ; and the point can be correctly and definitely ascertained only by 

 some system of accounts ; and each farmer must settle the matter for himself 

 alone. 



Of what a Farm Account should consist, has been pretty clearly indicated 

 in what has alreaJy been written, but it will bear a recapitulation. 



First, there should be a general account with, the whole farm. Each item 

 paid out should be charged to debit, and each item received should be placed 

 to credit. 



Second, there should be a separate, special account kept with each field, 

 each crop, and each animal. There should also be a tool account, a fence 

 account, a manure account, a compost account, an account of repairs upoa 

 buildings, and as many other accounts as there are points upon which knowl- 

 edge is needed, for it is the only sure way of ascertaining the profit and loss 

 in any and every department. 



Iluw a Farm Account should be kept. Premiums have been oflfered by sev- 

 eral of the agricultural societies in the State for the best formula of book 

 keeping, adapted to the farmer's use. These premiums have called out many 

 eflforts to supply the want ; and some of the systems presented have much 

 real merit in them. But an ohjejction which lies against nearly all of them is 

 this : they are too complicated to be generally adopted ; a term or two would 

 be required under a tutor to render one, not an adept at book keeping, famil- 

 iar with them. It is not proposed, in this paper, to present any specific 

 system or manner, in which such accounts should be kept, but only to suggest 

 and int-ist that each farmer should adopt such a system as he himself can 

 understand, and which will give him the desired results. One who has suffi- 

 cient leisure, and the requisite knowledge, can adopt all the formulae and 

 machinery of "double entry book keeping," undoubtedly, for an extensive 

 business, the best system. Another, having less time to devote to it, can make 

 a simple journal of all tlie daily transactions upon the farm, and from this 

 journal, at the close of the year, draw out all the items of expense or credit 

 which pertain to any particular subject, thus ascertaining the profit or loss in 

 every department. 



Another, who may have still less time, or ability to write, may with a piece 

 of chalk upon the barn door, or some place else, mark down from week to 

 week, the running expense of one crop at lea,st. This last, it is true, is a 

 small beginning, but if carefully kept it will give a result just as valuable, so 

 far as it-goes, as one kept in a more scientific manner. No farmer can right- 

 fully plead in excuse for his neglect in this particular, that he has no time to 

 devote to such a purpose ; just as well, or rather, foolishly, might the merchant 

 gay he has no time to write his charges, post his books and balance his ac- 

 counts ; it is a necessary part of the farmer's occupation, and cannot be dis- 

 pensed with. In any other pursuit than farming, bankruptcy would overtake 

 the party thus negligent in less than a twelve-month, and the same would be 

 the farmer's fate were it not that our good mother, the earth, yields her in- 

 crease so bountifully that even the most thoughtless and improvident can 

 glean up a subsistence, after having committed unwarrantable negligence and 

 waste. 



It is believed by the writer that in no one thing are the farmers of Maine, 



