2 The Farmer's Business Handbook 



of the farm, but unless he employs an accountant 

 there is likely to be no system, nor continuity, 

 nor intelligible result. Even if an accountant is 

 employed, the methods are generally those used in 

 ordinary mercantile bookkeeping, which, not be- 

 ing adapted to farm accounts, may require two 

 Philadelphia lawyers to interpret. 



In any case, farm accounts, if useful, are es- 

 pecially difficult to keep. This is not because 

 the principles of bookkeeping cannot be made to 

 serve as well in farm operations as in mercantile 

 pursuits, but because many of the entries must 

 be estimates rather than statements of actual 

 transactions. 



Most men, farmers included, lack or have lost 

 the habit of study. It is an age of haste, much 

 reading and poor mental digestion. The demands 

 of modern life are so numerous, varied and exact- 

 ing that the tendency is inevitably to learn a 

 little of many things instead of much of a few 

 things. Few people master perfectly the details 

 of their profession before relegating them to sub- 

 ordinates. The farmer, like other business men, 

 must make himself familiar with every detail be- 

 fore he is fitted to direct the labor of others 

 successfully. He should substitute knowledge 

 for random guesses; he should know his real 

 financial condition. Mere estimates of worth 

 and profit seldom prove to be correct. 



