184 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



ever useful it may be in more important farming enterprises, with 

 men at the head of them who have not, like most farmers, an aver- 

 sion to using the pen, and who thoroughly understand the mysteries 

 of commercial accountancy. Suitable and convenient book-keeping 

 for farmers is indeed something of a problem. We have failed to so 

 great an extent in the past in gaining over farmers to good book- 

 keeping because, as Mr. Edward H. Thomson, at the time in high 

 place in the Farm Management Bureau in the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, aptly observes, in a pamphlet on " Farm Book- 

 keeping " (which applies almost equally well to our British con- 

 ditions as to American), because we have been making for the wrong 

 goal, taking industrial and commercial book-keeping for our model. 

 Now, for a farmer's purposes such book-keeping is, as a model, 

 altogether out of place. Farmers do not, for their own business, 

 with very much less to be actually recorded than there is in a mer- 

 chant's or manufacturer's business, need a complex apparatus of 

 books and ledgers, like the city man. " One does not," so writes 

 Mr. Thomson, " need a full set of double entry accounts to tell 

 which cow is yielding the most profit or to determine the cost of 

 labour on the farm. A few simple, rightly interpreted, records 

 oftentimes mean more to the farmer, who is not used to book- 

 keeping, than does a complete set of accounts carried out in the 

 commercial form." That is absolutely true. We have confused the 

 farmer, whom we were trying to enlighten, by setting up a complete 

 orrery just to explain to him how the earth moves round the sun. 



" The farmer," so says Mr. P. P. Claxton, United States Commis- 

 sioner of Education, " must know how to keep accounts in such 

 form that he can easily read and interpret them." It is above all 

 things simplicity and appropriateness to the special line of business, 

 as which the farmer's will have to be recognised, that has to be 

 studied in devising a system of book-keeping. 



In the words of Mr. G. H. Stewart, head of the Statistical Branch 

 of the Department of Agriculture of British Columbia, specially 

 charged by his Government with the promotion of sound book- 

 keeping among farmers of the Province : " It is not necessary to 

 install an elaborate system of accountancy ; all that is needed is 

 some simple method of keeping accounts." 



There will have to be various record books, of course, which are 

 worth more to the plain person than any ledger. For what you 

 want in regulation ledgers — credits and debits — will in our farmer's 

 case prove an easy matter, and take up little space. His debit and 

 credit entries will be few. Records there should be of stock, 



