88 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



are familiar with the science of agriculture, and well schooled in the sciences, 

 who bring with them well demonstrated theories, who will explain the results 

 of scientific experiments in agriculture which the college library, laboratory, 

 and mechanical appliances at their command have made it possible for them 

 to carry forward and complete. 



I also notice in this audience many men who are proficient in agriculture, 

 who have spent years upon the farm and have a large practical experience, 

 whose surroundings indicate that they have brought thought, judgment, and 

 good sound common sense as well as developed muscle into the management 

 of the farm. 



The subjects brought before this Institute are open for your discussion. 

 You are all earnestly invited to participate, and I hope we shall in any event 

 free ourselves of the restraint that we are so apt to feel, and engage in a free 

 and full discussion and interchange of views upon the many interesting sub- 

 jects that will come before us. This meeting can but be one of the most 

 profitable gatherings of farmers ever held in this county. These Farmers' 

 Institutes have been held under the management and control of the State 

 Board of Agriculture since 1875, and it is believed have resulted in great good 

 to the communities in which they have been held. Very much useful knowl- 

 edge has been disseminated, and earnest inquiry aroused which have gone far 

 to demonstrate theory and establish facts. 



By far too many farmers keep no books or accounts, and hence never really 

 known whether they are making money or losing it ; many more make a 

 pretense of keeping an account of the year's receipts and expenses — which is 

 much better than keeping none — but still is not as thorough and satisfactory 

 in its results as the careful, prudent farmer should desire. Look at the mer- 

 chant, for example ; his books are so accurately kept that at the end of the 

 year he knows exactly how he stands; he knows just what class of goods has 

 paid him a profit, and just what have not, as well as those that will pay him 

 best to handle for another season ; his expense account, including clerk hire, 

 lights, fuel, rents, insurance, etc., etc., every item has been carefully kept; 

 his bills payable and bills receivable, and his stock invoice, and all embodied 

 in a system of book-keeping so admirably correct, that at a glance he can 

 ascertain the exact condition of his business. Fancy a merchant doing a suc- 

 cessful business and keeping no books ; the commercial agencies of the coun- 

 try would soon report him as a swindler, or else in such a deplorable mental 

 condition that his own interests would require the appointment of a guardian 

 to look after his affairs. While this policy on the part of the merchant 

 would be so considered, yet the majority, I fear, of the farmers of this county 

 are guilty of the same kind of lunacy in their neglect to keep strict account of 

 the transactions on the farm. Too many farmers go right on season after 

 season raising certain crops that may or may not pay them ; a general lump- 

 ing of the receipts, and a haphazard guess at the expenditures for the year, 

 may show that they have made some money, or rather, more properly putting it, 

 that they have gone through a year's hard work and have something left to 

 show for it. Had a separate account been kept with the different crops raised, 

 the fact would have doubtless been disclosed that the losses on some one of them 

 had materially reduced the profits which the labor and capital invested should 

 demand. An item of expense on the farm and one nearly always overlooked 

 is the cost of hand and team labor. Suppose a crop requires, besides the cost of 

 manuring, nearly all of the time of hand and team to attend to it ; this is an 



