Page S 



BETTER FRUIT 



August, 1920 



cultivating and irrigating, implements 

 and upkeep, boxes, picking and packing, 

 delivery. Miscellaneous (such as taxes, 

 insurance and overhead). The wide left 

 hand space is for receipts, the right side 

 is for payments. 



Special columns might be added for 

 team feed and upkeep, or tractor, oil 

 and gasoline. The method is sufficiently 

 flexible to allow for any results one 

 may desire. This anticipates a cash 

 business. 



Should there be transactions which 

 cannot be turned at once into cash, and 

 with most of us there will be such 

 transactions, then provision must be 

 made for recording the items. The 

 simplest form I can recommend to keep 

 these records will be a sheet or book 

 which we may call the "charge," or 

 customer's, record, where the custom- 

 er's name will appear for the articles 

 charged to him. This will require an- 

 other record to group the various 

 charges to each individual under one 

 heading. 



A credit, or purchase sheet may be 

 used with the same rulings as the cash 

 sheet where the name of the party is 

 entered and the items of cost distributed 

 to their respective columns. The totals 

 of these columns on the purchase sheet 

 must be combined with those of the 

 cash sheet to show total cost of 

 operating. 



Assuming you have now kept com- 

 plete records for a year, we are con- 

 cerned with determining our present 

 financial condition. 



1917 1918 1919 



of the columns on the cash sheet. Our 

 net increase or decrease in operation 

 will be found by adding our cash in- 

 come and sales on account, and deduct- 

 ing the cash operating costs, the oper- 

 ating purchases on account together 

 with any depreciation in equipment 

 shown on the inventory sheet. 



To illustrate, assume that at the first 

 of the year you started with real estate 

 valued at $2,500 and equipment of $500. 

 Your worth at beginning is $3,000. At 

 the end of the year your inventory 

 shows real estate valued at $2,500, im- 

 plements $500 less $50 depreciation. 

 Your cash sales were $1,600 and your 

 sales on account were $400. Your pur- 

 chases on account were $100 for repairs, 

 upkeep, etc. Then we are worth today 

 in real estate $2,500, equipment $450, 

 personal accounts $400, cash $953.74 — 

 total assets $4,303.74, minus the liabil- 

 ities, $100, or $4,203.74. Our income was 

 $1,600, our cash operating costs $646.20. 

 Our net increase is the total sales ($1,600 

 our cash plus $400) $2,000, minus the 

 cost of operation ($646.26 cash plus $100 

 on account) $746.26 and depreciation 

 ($50, or $796.26), leaving $1,203.74. This 

 increase, when added to our original 

 worth, $3,000, equals our present worth 

 as found above, $4,203.74. 



This I would suggest, that you keep 

 some sort of graph, or picture, of your 

 operations which can be adjusted each 

 year but which shows at a glance what 

 progress is being made. See the 

 following: 



1920 1921 1922 1923 



Two problems present themselves: 

 First, what are our assets, our liabilities, 

 and what is our present worth? Second, 

 what has been our income, our cost of 

 operation, and our net increase or de- 

 crease in operation? 



Problem one, our present worth, will 

 be our present inventories, the personal 

 accounts and notes due us, and our 

 balance of cash, minus the debts and 

 notes we owe. 



Problem two, income will be the total 

 receipts, and our cash-operating costs 

 will be the sum of the various footings 



I want to reiterate that the most im- 

 portant thing is for you to make the 

 record; that is where most of us fail. I 

 know one man who is keepiag a record 

 of his work, who does it on a calendar. 

 Well, that is all right; I don't care what 

 you use for your book account; he 

 writes it there, and at the end of the 

 month he turns to this sheet and groups 

 these items together, transferring to 

 permanent sheets. If you want to keep 

 books that way, it gives fairly good re- 

 sults — you have your record, anyway, 



at the end of the year, and that is 

 important. 



The time to do this posting, I suppose, 

 for most of us, is along about the sup- 

 per hour, when the day's work is over; 

 record what you have for the day's 

 business. Most of these men who are 

 working for the horticultural office 

 here, who have to go out and do field 

 work, must make a record and report, 

 so why can't we all do it? The end of 

 the day's work is the usual time. Let 

 us try to mark the day's report some- 

 where — on the calendar, or wherever 

 most convenient — and then, when you 

 get the totals at the end of the month 

 or year, it is very simple to figure up 

 and determine where vou stand. 



UNQUESTIONABLY 



<L Modern methods applied 

 to fruit growing have made 

 the Northwest a great fruit 

 growing center, with possi- 

 bilities of extensive develop- 

 ment. 



<L Modern methods applied 

 to banking have made the 

 FIRST NATIONAL BANK 

 pre-eminently the ally of the 

 horticulturist. Its facilities, 

 service and the personal in- 

 terest of its officers are at 

 your disposal. 



THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK 



m, OF PORTLAND OREGON a. 



HONOR'BILT 



DUMP 



JL FOR EVERY PURPOSE 



There's one for every 



home or farm need. 



Myers Self -Oiling Electric: 



House Pump shown here, 



and other MyersHand and Power ^ 

 Pumps for home water systems, 

 give running water in kitchen, 

 bath room, laundry, and in barn 

 or troughs. Myers dealers are 

 everywhere.They handleMyers 1 " 

 Hay Tools. Door Hangers and 

 Hand and Power Spray Outfits 

 L too. Ask yours todav or write 

 <2J^Lfor catalog, it's FREE. 



F. E. MYERS & BRO. 



135 Fourth St. Ash I. 



BUY FROM THE LOCAL MITCHELL DEALER 



