240 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



one farmer who loaned thousands of dollars to 

 scores of parties, and yet he could tell to a cent 

 the amount of interest that was due at any time 

 upon any of his loans, and the amount of the loans, 

 when due, etc. 



And the author has known farmers who kept a 

 good system of farm bookkeeping that made fail- 

 ures of their business. But neither of these cases 

 argue for or against farm bookkeeping. 



Farmers of the past generally had no training 

 whatever in the art of bookkeeping, and even if 

 they had, the exaction of their business was such 

 that they were too tired at the close of their day's 

 work to spend much time in bookkeeping. 



But the up to date scientific farmer with the im- 

 proved farm machinery that lessens his hours of 

 toil has the time untaxed from physical exertion 

 to devote to a simple system of a farm bookkeeping 

 which ought to be instituted upon his farm. 



For years the author has kept a farm diary in 

 which he has daily written a short account, show- 

 ing the kind of weather and what was done upon 

 the farm in each particular day of the year. This 

 has proven of great value to him. As in the 

 former year's record he found much that was of 

 value for the present year's operations, in these 

 daily records he kept the time of labor employed 

 for each day, and names of parties who performed 

 the labor, the kind of labor done, and also of any 

 expenditures or purchases. His diary thus be- 

 came a simple day journal by which he kept a com- 

 plete track of his farm operations, and the time 

 consumed in keeping this record was so small that 

 it was not irksome in the least. It was done at 



