442 THE ESSENTIALS OF AGRICULTURE 



581. Utilization of farm products. At present the American 

 farmer grows his crops and stock to better advantage than he 

 utilizes them. Too much material goes to waste, and the road 

 from the farm to the kitchen of the consumer is too long and 

 involves too many people. On every farm enough live stock 

 should be kept to utilize the coarser materials that have no 

 market value. The products of the farm should be standardized 

 by the farmer himself and should not require the services of a 

 number of people at central markets to sort, pack, and otherwise 

 prepare them for consumption. The farmers of Denmark took 

 the egg business of London from the Irish farmer by furnishing 

 only clean fresh eggs of standard size and quality. The apple 

 growers of the Northwest have found a ready sale for their 

 products at the highest market price because the stamp on each 

 box is a guaranty of the standard quality of the contents. The 

 whole question of the utilization of farm products concerns itself 

 most intimately with the business side of farming and is more a 

 work of the head than of the hand. 



II. FARM ACCOUNTS 



582. Keeping accounts. The farmer should be able to tell at 

 the end of the year what his gain or loss has been and which 

 departments of his business have made or lost money. When 

 the things are happening which the farmer should record in his 

 accounts, he is often too busy to record them. When he has 

 leisure, he has forgotten the details. A system of bookkeeping 

 which is adapted to the average farmer must be simple. 



583. The inventory. An inventory should be taken at the 

 beginning of the farm year. The farmer should list everything 

 he possesses, including real estate, live stock, equipment, sup- 

 plies, bills receivable or money owed him (whether as notes or 

 as open accounts), and cash on hand. After all of these items are 

 listed and conservative values have been placed on each item, 

 add the values of everything except bills payable, which will give 

 the total investment in business. By subtracting bills payable 

 from this total investment the net worth of the business is shown. 



