2?2 STATE BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. 



capacity and "strength to save" that it now knows, it might have utilized 

 thousands of hushels of potatoes, that really made their owners worse off than 

 those who had none. We were then young in the business, and had not learned 

 that by tlie Alden process potatoes could be preserved in perfect state for any 

 length of time, and for any climate in the world. Such, however, is the fact, 

 and to-day the government of the United States is calling for all that can be 

 had for the use of the navy, and I believe it is no fanciful dream, that the time 

 is not far ahead when the mariner can sit down to a meal of as fresh and 

 ■wholesome vegetables as any one of us can to-day, though he be in mid-ocean 

 or on the coasts of the far-off islands. 



Dr. 0. Palmer read the following essay on 



"book-keeping ox the farm." 



That something like order or system in every department of business is 

 demanded in order to furnish any assurance of success, is a statement with 

 which but few, if any, will be likely to take issue. There are but few depart- 

 ments of business or of industry that will be likely to realize more from a strict 

 adherence to system than that of the farmer, and no system can be completely 

 followed without a careful record of the events connected with it. No memory 

 is certain enough to be trusted to a sufiicient extent to dispense Avith books of 

 record of matters pertaining to the farm any more than the banker, merchant, 

 or manufacturer can trust his memory to take care of his business. A distrust 

 of what they sneeringly term "book farming" is felt by a large number of 

 farmers, merely because they do not understand it, and do not, therefore, appre- 

 ciate its importance or advantages. They say they do not understand book- 

 keeping, and for that reason could not, if they would, keep accounts with their 

 farm. This is a mistaken idea, for any man with sense enough to plow a straight 

 furrow, who can read and write, and who understands the fundamental princi- 

 , pies of arithmetic, can keep books, and keep them correctly if he has the mind 

 to do it. I do not believe there are five farmers in Hillsdale county but would 

 know enough to charge John Smith with forty bushels of wheat which he had 

 sold him, and to credit him with one hundred bushels of corn when it was 

 brought to pay for it two months later; and the whole system of keeping books 

 of account is just as simple as the record of this transaction. For a farmer 

 who has no experience in theoretical book-keeping, I would not advise at first 

 that he begin with a complicated form, but a simple set of accounts that a child 

 can easily understand, and which, if followed, will grow year by year until he 

 will be able by simply referring to his books to give you the exact profit or loss 

 of any crop or field, or herd or animal he may have. I will give in as brief a 

 manner as possible my idea of a simple form of farm accounts, but first let me 

 say that an indispensable adjunct to the beginning and carrying out of the pro- 

 gramme, is to have writing materials and your books convenient for use ; for 

 if after using they are to be packed away in a drawer in a closet or bedroom, or 

 some out of the way place, you might as well not begin, for ninety-nine out of 

 every one hundred of us would not go after them one day in ten after a hard 

 day's work; but if you have a secretary or desk in your living room, so they are 

 close at hand when you come in in the evening and have removed your boots, 

 it will be part of your enjoyment and rest to open your book and enter tlie 

 proper record of the day; but if you have neither secretary or desk, put up a 

 neat bracket shelf, which you can do in an hour the first rainy day, and have 

 them ever ready for use. For this form of accounts I should use but one book, 



