FAEM BOOKKEEPING 241 



the close of each day before retiring. In connec- 

 tion with this simple diary he kept an account of 

 articles purchased for the farm, and of every 

 article sold, showing purchaser and price received 

 for each article sold. 



From such a simple system of bookkeeping the 

 average farmer ought to be able to know whether 

 his business pays. He can easily tell whether he 

 is prospering. He may not be able to figure de- 

 preciation, interest on capital, charges for his own 

 labor and such things to that nicety and exactness 

 that the trained bookkeeper with his elaborate 

 trial balances would be able to figure out, nor 

 would he debit his business with every cent it ought 

 to be debited with, but he would know whether he 

 is "going into the hole," or how much he was 

 running behind each year. It would not require an 

 elaborate system of bookkeeping to show him that 

 he had a home surrounded with the comforts and 

 pleasures of life and was possessed of a business 

 that had great possibilities for those other profits 

 that were greater to him than "bookkeeping 

 profits." 



An elaborate system of bookkeeping upon the 

 farm no doubt might in many cases teach us that a 

 real farm home might not be a money making in- 

 stitution, but as some one has said a real farm 

 home " is a place to live, not a place to make a liv- 

 ing. A place to rest, not to toil. A place to meet 

 friends, not customers." 



A complete system of bookkeeping upon the 

 farm figuring depreciation, interest, insurance 

 upon his property upon which there is no debt, and 

 the farmer's labor would doom every farmer to a 



