SECTION XXIX 

 Market-garden Accounts 



There is a general impression that market gardeners and market 

 growers generally do not worry themselves much in the matter of keep- 

 ing strict account of their financial transactions. This impression may be 

 correct so far as some of the older school of market growers is concerned, 

 but we doubt if there are many modern commercial horticulturists who do 

 not keep a fairly strict account of their business transactions. 



There are undoubtedly some men to be found who treat the subject of 

 keeping accounts with the utmost disdain, and such cannot be brought to 

 see that it is essential to know exactly how their business stands. They 

 take their goods to market, and so long as what is taken for them is 

 entered up in a pocket book, that is all that matters. Any surplus cash 

 is paid into the bank, but payments for all kinds of things are made out 

 of the cash takings without any account being kept. Memory is trusted 

 to very largely, but it is no real evidence that any certain transactions 

 have taken place should they be at any time questioned. Besides, as one 

 grows older, the memory loses its sensitiveness, and important business 

 transactions may be easily forgotten, or the details of them may become 

 so obscure as to make it impossible to arrive at a correct result. 



It is therefore of the greatest importance that an account should be 

 kept of all commercial transactions, and that a system of bookkeeping 

 should be adopted to suit the special requirements of the business. Some 

 growers will have one system and some another, but they must all be 

 founded on the fundamental principles of debit and credit of buying and 

 selling, of giving and receiving. In business, if a man gives something, he 

 expects to receive something for it in return, either in money or goods, and 

 as the essence of all business is to make a profit, he always endeavours to 

 secure a higher amount for an article than it has cost him to produce. 

 Thus, a man who grows, say, 100 tons of Tomatoes every year hopes to 

 receive more money for them than it has actually cost to grow them. He 

 must receive a price sufficiently high to pay for his labour, coal or coke, 

 rent, rates, taxes, water, interest on capital, and depreciation, in addition 

 to which there must be something over for the benefit of himself and his 

 family. If he secures a price to meet all these demands he makes a profit] 

 but if he fails to do so, then he makes a loss, and he must make this loss 

 good from some other source, if available. 



Men who are careless over their bookkeeping arrangements not infre- 



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