Farm Accounting is Difficult 3 



This little treatise is prepared for those who 

 wish to know at the end of each year what are the 

 assets, liabilities, net worth and profits, and also 

 which crop and which group of animals give profit 

 and which give loss. Only by keeping record of 

 each cow can it be determined which ones are be- 

 ing kept at a profit and which at a loss. The lean 

 kine may use up the profits of the fat kine. How 

 many farmers can tell how much they were worth 

 at the beginning of any given period, or can state 

 what were the gains or losses of any year's opera- 

 tions ? A man may be able to say that he started 

 in business in 1860 with $1,000 and that in 1890, 

 thirty years afterward, he was worth $15,000; 

 but he will have no exact knowledge as to whether 

 he secured profits in producing wheat or wool, 

 cotton or cattle, potatoes or poultry. He may 

 have made $1,000 in cattle in a single year, twice 

 the yearly average profits, and may have lost 

 $600 in wheat or wool; but in the absence of 

 accounts there is no way of determining where 

 or how the gains were made or the losses in- 

 curred . 



Few farmers, or indeed, small dealers or mer- 

 chants in towns, have ever taken stock or in- 

 ventoried their belongings. It is a surprising 

 fact that while most business men are striving 

 faithfully to secure a surplus, many at the end 

 of the year never note the advance or depreoia- 



