626 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



"THE FARMER AND HIS BUSINESS SYSTEM." 

 * By G. E. Bartholomew. 



(Before Madison County Farmers' Institute.) 



The failure of business men can as a rule be traced to three causes: 



First, — Dishonesty. 



Second, — 111 health or misfortune. 



Third, — The lack of some system in his business. 



The first two we are going eliminate as not applying to this audience, 

 and present the third proposition insofar as it applies to the farmer ia 

 conducting his business from day to day, and thereby getting the best re- 

 sults from his investment and labor. 



The first objection that will be raised is that the farmer has not suffi- 

 cient business to justify any particular system in caring for his business; 

 but let us see. As a rule the average man in business in a country town 

 has from five to ten thousand dollars invested, and some as high as fif- 

 teen thousand, doing an average annual business of from fifteen to twen- 

 ty thousand dollars. 



The average farmer owning 160 acres of land valued at seventy-five 

 dollars per acre has invested in land twelve thousand dollars, add to that, 

 personal property sufficient to carry on this amount of farming, gives you 

 five thousand dollars more, making a total investment of seventeen thou- 

 sand dollars, which is considerable more than a great majority of the 

 business investments in the country town, and I think you will concede 

 that the man in business in town must have some system in conducting 

 his affairs in order to make that business successful. 



The average annual business of the farmer will probably amount to 

 from five to ten thousand dollars, so that with an investment of seventeen 

 thousand dollars and doing an annual business of nearly ten thousand 

 dollars, it becomes absolutely necessary that the farmer, in order to get 

 the greatest profit with the least effort from his farm, must have some 

 system of accounting, and established methods of management, whereby 

 he can know at all times the condition of his finances, which, with a com- 

 parison of results, will place him on an equal footing with the business 

 men with whom he is dealing constantly, and he should be alive to the 

 many possibilities of supply and demand of which he is the very founda- 

 tion. 



The first proposition is for the farmer to establish and maintain a 

 high credit. If you will ask any farmer who is known to be successful in 

 carrying on a large farm, he will tell you that it is absolutely necessary 

 to borrow money, and to do this with profit your credit must be of the 

 very best. If you would be wise, you would select a bank in whose offi- 

 cers you have the utmost confidence, go to that bank and p'^f.e before 

 them a true and correct statement of your resources and liabilities, so 

 that they may know when you borrow money that you have sufficient 



