Farm Accounts. 133 



prefer to have a separate account for each description of grain. 

 Live stock, again, may be arranged together or kept separate. 

 Where the entries are iew, classing them together would not be 

 so very objectionable, since they could readily be separated if it 

 were desired ; but on large or good-sized farms we shall do well 

 to have the following headings in our Ledger : — 



Wheat, Barley, Oats, Beans, Peas, and any other description 

 of corn which may be produced and sold. Horned Cattle, Sheep, 

 Pigs, Horses, and Poultry. Roots sold, Hay and Straw sokJ, 

 Food purchased. Seeds purchased. Manures purchase(]. Im- 

 plements. Coals. Various Creditors, either under separate 

 Ledger headings, or collected together, as Sundry Persons, ac- 

 cording to the amount of business each is likely to transact. 

 Rent. Rates and Taxes. Manual Labour. Permanent improve- 

 ments. Miscellaneous. Profit and Loss, &c. 6cc. The following 

 examples will show the way in which the Ledger is kept. (See 

 page 134.) 



This Table will convey an idea of how Ledger entries are made. 

 (The small column preceding the money spaces is useful as 

 referring at once to the Journal for fuller particulars than can 

 conveniently be entered into the Ledger.) The Food, Seeds, and 

 Manures Purchased accounts are very useful, especially the two 

 former. It would be next to impossible to say beforehand exactly 

 the proportion of a purchased article that each kind of stock will 

 consume, and therefore it is all carried at first to a stores account, 

 and then at the end of the year, or as often as the farmer deems 

 advisable, the account is balanced by receiving credit for the pro- 

 portion consumed during the year by the different kinds of stock, 

 the material for this adjustment being taken from a granary or 

 corn account, to be spoken of hereafter. 



Now this is quite a simple sort of Ledger, which merely shows 

 the gross returns or expenditure under each heading, and does 

 not go into the details which some have advocated. 



But every day's experience more thoroughly convinces me that 

 a complete system of double entry cannot be applied successfully 

 to farm accounts. I do not mean to say that it is impossible 

 to pursue it, but that to do so entails an enormous increase oi 

 work, without any equivalent advantage. By double entry I 

 mean an exact account — Dr. and Cr. — against every field or 

 other item. 



Now to do this we nmst, in the first place, analyse the Labour 

 Journal, that is, separate every shilling laid out, and charge it to 

 the various accounts for the benefit of which it was done, and 

 post these amounts regularly into the Ledger, to the Dr. of the 

 field or crop, and the Cr. of labour. 



The field, then, in the Ledger will contain, on the Dr. side, 



first 



