22 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



chances of my enjoying any income from it now 

 would be tolerably slim. 



In this same study everything consumed on the 

 farms was weighed, measured, counted, and priced 

 as it was brought in the house, a procedure that 

 must have entailed endless detail work and that 

 at best could never be absolutely accurate. Too 

 many things must be processed too often before 

 they reach the ultimate consumer to permit abso- 

 lute accuracy. Should we reckon that part of the 

 corn consumed on the farm at so much per bushel, 

 or should we wait until it appears in the house as 

 raw milk before entering it as a credit? And if 

 we do the latter, shall we calculate it as so many 

 quarts of raw milk, or as milk, cream, and but- 

 ter? What shall we do about that part of the 

 raw milk which goes sour and would be wasted 

 were it not made into smear case? Or about the 

 skim milk that comes out of the separator and goes 

 into the pig trough? 



From a practical standpoint it is just as useful 

 and a lot easier to ignore the whole question of 

 the value of the products consumed at home; to 

 concentrate accounting vigilance on two sets of 

 figures about which there can be no possible doubt 

 or argument: the costs of those things that must 

 be bought, and the receipts from sales. For the 

 alert reader will have observed that in spite of 



