628 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



chinery, groceries, dry goods, shoes or anything of that nature and have 

 not the money to pay for it, go to your banker and borrow it and pay 

 the merchant cash for your purchase. You lose the interest on the money 

 that you borrow of the bank, but, as a rule, this is a very small amount, 

 and you will make it up many times over in the prices you obtain from the 

 merchant. Do not deceive yourself by thinking that you can buy as cheap 

 and run a store bill which you do not pay oftener than once in six months, 

 or, many times, once a year, as you can by paying cash at the time goods 

 are purchased. If you would expect the merchant to give you a low price 

 on goods purchased, it is only fair to him that you pay the money for 

 those goods, so that he may be permitted to obtain an equally low price 

 from the manufacturer by paying cash and getting what discounts are 

 possible. 



A promiscuous giving of notes for machinery and such things as that 

 injures your credit more than many times the amount borrowed in one 

 place. These notes, as a rule, find their way to the bank, and a good 

 many times are not held in strict confidence by the person to whom 

 they are given. 



I could name several men who are conducting farms composed of from 

 three to five hundred acres who do not owe one cent except to iheir banker; 

 their credit is placed at the very highest point in the vicinity in which they 

 live, and they pay cash by checking on the bank for everything they buy. 



There is another advantage in paying for everything you purchase by 

 your check on the bank, and that is, it not only gives you a receipt for 

 the payment of the amount, but it makes a record for you which might 

 prove of great benefit in making comparisons in subsequent years. By 

 placing the proceeds of everything you sell to your credit in the bank 

 you obtain a perfect record of your entire business transactions on your 

 bank book, and should errors arise or bills be forgotten, this is the best, 

 quickest and surest method of correcting the discrepancy. Records are 

 the most important part of any system, no matter what the business or 

 how large or small. Go to your druggist and purchase a small, alphabet- 

 ically indexed blank book, which will cost you 25 cents, and there register 

 under each day the many details of the business as they come along 

 from time to time, such as the price of eggs on a certain day, or the yield 

 of a certain piece of oats in a certain year, or the date of the birth of a 

 certain colt, and the many other little things that might be of benefit 

 to you as a comparison in after years. It will not take to exceed five 

 minutes in any one evening, and if you cannot do it yourself, your wife, 

 your son or your daughter would be very glad to lend a hand to the system, 

 which is as much to their interest as your own to keep perfect. 



Have another book, which you can purchase for another 25 cents, in 

 which you charge your neighbor, Smith, with a day's work which you havt» 

 loaned him, or credit your neighbor, Brown, with a day's work which he 

 has loaned you; or perhaps you have sold to another neighbor some grain 

 or other product which he is unable to pay for at the time, and over which 

 there is many times a dispute. When the debt is paid, record it on the 

 book, and you have your records complete. 



