MARKETS. CATTLE MARKETS. 297 



whose annual rent, at one time, was seven thousand pounds, or 

 thirty-five thousand dollars ; and it is quite obvious how disas 

 trous must be the consequences, if such properties are managed 

 otherwise than with the most scrupulous commercial exactness. 



It cannot be denied that our habits in this respect are alto 

 gether different from what they should be ; that perhaps a 

 majority of our farmers keep no accounts whatever, and many 

 who keep accounts exhibit only imperfect and slovenly examples. 

 It is said, and it is certainly much to his honor, that a distin 

 guished individual here, possessing immense estates, but who 

 had become somewhat perplexed, not to say embarrassed, in his 

 pecuniary affairs, and whose education had not been, in this 

 matter, of a character to enable him to manage his affairs to 

 advantage, employed an accurate accountant in his house for 

 some time, for the sole purpose of learning from him the science 

 of book-keeping by double entry. With a natural love of order, 

 and a firm resolution, having acquired this knowledge, he was 

 soon enabled to bring order out of confusion, and rescue himself 

 from embarrassment, and its attendant and inevitable mortifica 

 tions. Such an example as this is certainly worth recording. 



Many farmers, more systematic than others, keep not only an 

 account of cost and expenditure, and the amount of sales and 

 profits, in the form of a cash account, but likewise a regular 

 account with every field and every crop, and I had almost said 

 with every animal, taking, as every careful trader or merchant 

 will do, a yearly account of stock at a fair valuation. Every 

 thing is accounted for ; not so much as a quart of milk is used 

 in the family, but it is charged at the current price. I should be 

 doing great injustice not to say that I know many examples of 

 such carefulness in my own country. Besides the great satisfac 

 tion springing from this exactness, the sense of security and in 

 tegrity, which it brings with it, is invaluable. 



XLVIII. MARKETS. CATTLE MARKETS. 



The English farmers have great advantages in their markets 

 and exchanges ; and in this matter, to a certain extent, we ought 



