The Casting Up of Profits 21 



"I've got the money. Yours truly, 



Oliver Ditson." 



Reared as he has been, the farmer is to be 

 pitied, not bhimed. Until more rational methods 

 of teaching practical accounts are employed, 

 the majority of the people will live on in the 

 old-fashioned happy-go-lucky way. Happily, 

 there are some young, progressive farmers who 

 have the courage to attempt difficult problems 

 and the desire to discover the profitable and 

 unprofitable branches of their business. They 

 may not have time or opportunity to keep a 

 complete and detailed account of all transac- 

 tions, but are still desirous of learning whence 

 arise the profits and losses. Usually both profits 

 and losses are present. One cow in a herd is 

 producing a profit of twenty cents per day, an- 

 other in the same herd is kept at a loss of ten 

 cents per day. There may be a fair profit in the 

 corn field and a loss in the wheat field. If 

 the farmer can be persuaded that, by the ex- 

 penditure of a little extra mental effort, he can 

 discover these facts, we shall get him interested 

 in the profits and losses of his business enough 

 to adopt at least some method of keeping brief 

 accounts, which, if continued, will lead naturally 

 to keeping the fuller detailed accounts, as outlined 

 in the following chapter. 



