60 MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 



FARM xVCCOUNTS. ESSAY AND PLAN. 



BY F. W. PITCHER, BAXGOR. 



In a system of accounts for any pursuit, the object sought is the 

 simplest method or arrangement by which the condition of the dijQfer- 

 ent branches of that business may be shown in detail at a glance. 



The farmer needs this and more. He is daily applying and test- 

 ing the principles of a science, and wishing to pay the debt which 

 every man owes to his profession, he will require that every day's 

 experience be carefully noted with practical observations on the same; 

 for to be of any authority, he well knows that his tests must carry 

 with them the time, the manner and the result. He will also require 

 a detailed account of his farm expenses and his farm income, whether 

 it be from his stock or from his grain or other crops. 



To fixcilitate the noting of -such experience, together with a state- 

 ment of daily business transactions, I would recommend the following 

 form, (a specimen of which is annexed.) Upon the left hand side of 

 the page I would line off a margin for weather indications, as by 

 thermometer or otherwise. To the riirht of this line I would have 

 the journal or diary, and I would have it zealously filled with the 

 working of different theories in regard to my pursuit — with the man- 

 agement of stock, of orchards, of manures, &c., together with all 

 business transactions. All contracts for labor or otherwise I would 

 have written here with an acknowledgment of the same by the con- 

 tractor's signature. Moneys paid I would also have the receipt of, 

 acknowledged here if possible with the signature of the person to whom 

 paid. This diary to its right would have its column for dollars and 

 cents — (Thus far differing not at all from the form of the simplest 

 journals now in common use.) To the right of this column for 

 dollars and cents I would have a space for references to leger page ; 

 and beyond this space another column for dollars and cents. This 

 last column being for the cash account kept in this manner, at the 



