BUSINESS ASPECTS OF FARMING 63 



At the outset it was necessary for a period of several years to 

 make an annual accounting in the probate court; and this was most 

 fortunate, for it proved to be a lesson of the greatest value. It com- 

 pelled keeping a careful record of the incomes and outgoes, and of 

 profits and losses. The value of a performance record was soon rec- 

 ognized as being necessary for a study of the business, to determine 

 what part of the operation was paying and what was not ; and if not, 

 why not. Systems already prepared were not available then, nor were 

 there many to whom to turn for advice about it ; so we worked out a 

 system of our own to serve the purpose. For keeping a record of the 

 cash transactions a regular double entry system was used. To keep 

 a performance record, the farms were laid out in forty-acre fields; 

 these were numbered, and each year the crop, its yield, value, and 

 fertilizer applications, if any, were noted. A business-like method of 

 accounting, of striking balances, of taking inventories, and of analysis 

 of profit and loss is just as important in the handling of a farm as it 

 is essential to the intelligent handling of any other business. The 

 information made available by a good record of performance is the 

 basis of intelligent farm management, and that is the basis of both 

 safety and success. Any college of agriculture that does not include 

 in its curriculum a thoro course of accounting suited to the needs 

 of the farm business, and require every student to take it, is lacking 

 one of the most important fundamentals. For if intelligent farm 

 management isn't the main, ultimate objective of a college of agri- 

 culture, what is? 



The need of definite information on many aspects of the business 

 was keenly felt, so the acquisition of it began; but it came from so 

 many sources in such different forms books, bulletins, circulars, mag- 

 azine articles, etc. that soon it was impossible to find the things 

 wanted. To obviate this difficulty, the material was all card-indexed 

 according to subjects; so that, for example, the card for corn had a list 

 of every article in the library pertaining to that subject. By this 

 method, and almost for the asking, an extremely useful library was 

 obtained. 



It may be a strain on the credulity, but in those days both lumber 

 and labor were comparatively cheap and money scarce. Buildings 

 generally on farms under lease were of temporary construction. Fre- 

 quently the landlord would buy the material and the tenant, with the 

 help of a jack-of-all-trades from the nearest village, often called a 

 hatchet-and-saw man, would build them. Not much consideration 

 was given to their architecture, location, or arrangement, or the direc- 



