AligllSt, IQ20 



BETTER FRUIT 



Bookkeeping for the Orchardist 



By E. R. Sanford, Head Department of Business Training, Missoula County, Montana, High School 



THE experience of the majority of 

 people who have attempted to keep 

 farm and orchard records has not been 

 satisfactory for several reasons, chiefly 

 because at a busy season the records 

 have been neglected. The person waits 

 for a rainy day for writing up the 

 records and the rainy days in Montana 

 have been so few and at such long inter- 

 vals that a great portion of the facts 

 to be recorded have been forgotten. 

 The effort is made, the results are dis- 

 gusting and the book is slammed into 

 a corner, there to remain until after 

 the harvest. When the leisure days of 

 winter come, you begin to speculate 

 upon just what your year's labor has 

 netted you, or your income tax return 

 blank arrives to be filled in (if you are 

 so fortunate as to have an income from 

 an orchard which will permit you to 

 make a return), so you dig out the old 

 book and try again, with more or less 

 unsatisfactory conclusions and rather 

 poor guesses as to real conditions of 

 your affairs. 



Failure often results from attempt- 

 ing a too complicated system, in which 

 the labor of working out the details is 

 too great for the results secured, and 

 I shall endeavor to give you some few 

 points to help you establish your ac- 

 counting system. 



First, it is necessary to know what 

 resulls you want to secure, and then 

 shape and arrange your system to fit 

 your case. Don't buy an elaborate sys- 



tem and then try to live up to it and 

 shape your career to fit the system. 

 I will try to illustrate this point a little 

 later. 



There are some steps which are 

 necessary before you start your ac- 

 counts, first of which is a complete 

 inventory of your orchard and equip- 

 ment at a fair valuation. This is your 

 foundation. In fact, it is possible to 

 arrive approximately at your condition 

 by careful annual inventories with 

 comparative analyses. Inventories once 

 set up, it is not a difficult problem In 

 determine what your depreciation may 

 be from use. To illustrate, assume that 

 you have a disc valued at $50, which 

 under usual conditions, would last ten 

 years, then for inventory value it will 

 depreciate 10 per cent on original value 

 each year for ten years, that is, $45, 

 value second year $40, third, etc. 



The time to take the inventory is 

 whenever most convenient, but it should 

 be at practically the same date each 

 year. Some people prefer the first of 

 the year, others about March first, just 

 before spring work begins. Your land 

 and permanent improvements, includ- 

 ing buildings and trees, should be 

 included as real estate, but the costs of 

 upkeep and operation must be kept 

 separately. 



Once you have determined your in- 

 ventories and listed them in an inven- 

 tory book or schedule, the next item 

 is the cash account. The best method 



Page 7 



for handling the cash is to deposit with 

 your bank and pay all bills by check, 

 of course, because you then have a 

 voucher for each payment, but it is not 

 always convenient for the orchardisl 

 who lives some distance from the bank 

 to handle it in this way. However, you 

 must form the habit of recording all 

 items of cash received or paid out 

 every day, say at the supper hour, or 

 other regular time. The book in which 

 the cash record is kept may be easily 

 classified and arranged so as to reduce 

 the work of making the records and at 

 the same time secure the results desired, 

 with no transfers to other books, this 

 being your permanent and classified 

 record. This is known as the columnar 

 method, which is a cash book with any 

 number of columns, classified by titles 

 at the top of the various columns which 

 makes distribution »easy, and the totals 

 of the columns at any time will show 

 total cash costs for the various classi- 

 fications by months, years, days, or any 

 manner desired. 



To make this more concrete I desire 

 to show you some ruled sheets of a cash 

 book showing how results are secured. 

 I want the cost of prunning, spraying, 



Cement Coated Wire Nails 



If your dealer cannot or will not 

 supply you with Nails, we probably 

 can do so. 



A. C. RULOFSON CO. 

 Monadnock Building, San Francisco 



GMC 



Trucks 



Mr. Orchardist: 



"Spray the GMC Way~ 



Mount your horse-drawn outfit (minus the engine) on our special sub-frame and put it on a GMC % to 1-ton truck. 

 The GMC power-take-off and engine operates the pump or not while standing or moving. 



The penumatic tires give the traction. The truck engine gives the power with no attention, while the pump pressure 

 stays at 250 pounds or more. 



Loosen four bolts and a chain and you can detach the spray outfit and put on another body. Thirty minutes' work! 



The GMC spray shows an actual saving of about 60% over horse operation. 



One more reason why the GMC model 16 is AMERICA'S STANDARD ALL-PURPOSE TRUCK 



Seattle 

 Spokane 



ELDMDGE$ffiSALES(D Yakima 



Walla Walla 



GMC ON A TRUCK IS LIKE USA ON A BOND 



k'HEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



