Notes, Communications and Revieivf. 135 



Mr. Orwin, on the other hand, treats agriculture consistently 

 as a manufacturing business. It differs from the butcher's 

 business, in which a bullock is bought for a given amount one 

 day, and sold retail within a week ; from the dairyman's, in 

 which milk is brought in in the morning and sold before 

 night ; and from the corn merchant's, in which corn is bought 

 to-day and sold without any further expenditure on it within a 

 few hours or a few months. The farmer's interest in the 

 bullock may extend over two or three years, and it involves 

 payments for feeding and attending all the time ; his interest 

 in milk may begin with the breeding of heifers, and is always 

 concerned with feeding ; his interest in corn extends from the 

 time he begins to plough for the crop until he spends the last 

 shilling on it in carting it to the market. Mr. Orwin argues 

 that any system of account-keeping which ignores these opera- 

 tions and the details of expenditure on them is of little use to 

 farmers. It is not enough that a man should know he has 

 spent SOOl. in wages, he ought to know how far each crop and 

 each class of live stock have received benefit from this expen- 

 diture, and he cannot possibly gain this information through 

 accounts kept on commercial principles. 



The most common objection to the system of keeping 

 accounts in the way Mr. Orwin advocates is that it involves too 

 much labour. This is really not an objection at all, but an 

 excuse, a confession that farmers do not think it worth their 

 while, or are unwilling, or too indifferent, to bring their 

 accounts into harmony with the character of their business. 

 The making of money in any steady and straightforward way 

 involves work ; there is no better game than making money, 

 and none that gives more lasting satisfaction, and the farmer 

 who thinks that he can be more profitably occvipied than in 

 getting to know exactly how he is playing the game, and how 

 he might play it better, may be left to discover his mistake. 

 In the different chapters of this book Mr. Orwin explains a 

 system of recording the money spent in producing each class 

 of live stock and each form of produce. As an example, he 

 works out a set of accounts for a moderate sized mixed farm, 

 and with the help of this, and with the explanations in the 

 text, it is possible for a farmer to adopt the system. Because 

 it introduces a new principle in this sphere the book will 

 exercise a special influence. The difficulty of- the labour 

 involved will soon be overcome, for farmers will find, as 

 miners, engineers, shipbuilders and many others have found, 

 that this kind of account-keeping is the part of their business 

 which is most worth while their attention. 



John Orr. 



