KEEPING OF ACCOUNTS 697 



using a lead pencil, with a rubber head to erase the mistakes. 

 From there down, on the left hand side, I wrote the last names 

 of the hired men, not alphabetically, but in groups, according 

 to the work different squads or persons were put at. Some 

 would be set to cultivating corn, some attending sheep, and some 

 cattle, some cutting wheat, some haying, some repairing, others 

 doing miscellaneous work that did not come under any particu- 

 lar head, as chores, hauling water and straw. A bracket mark 

 showed who composed each group or detail, and an entry was 

 made opposite each, noting the work each was at. If, after 

 quarter of a day, any or all changed to other work, the figure 

 i was then annexed, meaning they were engaged at that work 

 quarter of a day ; and a word or two, as, hay i, etc., indicated 

 what they worked at the other quarter day up to noon. In the 

 afternoon, P. M. was put in the middle of the slip, and the list 

 of men again penciled down, at noon-time, according as 

 the work had shaped during tlie forenoon, for the last half of 

 the day ; or according as decided for the afternoon's opeia- 

 tions. Toward evening, in the field, as leisure occurred, I 

 turned the slip over and made headings of sheep, hay, com, 

 repairs, and miscellaneous work, according to what was done 

 and noted on the slip during the day. Then the names of the 

 men and the length of time they worked during the day on 

 each crop or job (usually not less fractions than quarters of a 

 day), were set down under these headings according as they 

 had respectively been employed, and their wages for the time 

 engaged at each employment carried out. If a man's wages^ 

 working at so many dollars per month, came to thirty and ten- 

 thirteenths cents for the half day, or proportionally for a quarter 

 of a da}', I carried it out so, to the very fraction of a cent, 

 and entered it for the part of the day he worked on that 

 crop under its heading, and that of any others similarly 

 employed. It was, in effect, simply charging the corn or hay 

 crop, etc., with the wages expended on it for the day. I then 

 added up the wages paid for the day on each crop or job, and 

 set it a little to the right, where, adding up these different 

 sums, showed the sum total of wages paid for the day, and on 



