30 The Farmer's Business Handbook 



instance, the accounts with cattle, swine and 

 chickens are all placed in the former inventory 

 under one generic head — live stock. When we 

 come to wheat or oats, account will not need to 

 be kept with each field but with each crop as a 

 whole. It has been thought best not to carry 

 or open too many accounts at first. Later, when 

 the system has been learned, the live stock ac- 

 count might be divided into three accounts — cat- 

 tle, swine and poultry. At the end of the year 

 they could be closed into one account — live stock. 

 The data would then be at hand for determin- 

 ing the total profits of live stock, as well as 

 the profits of each one of the three classes of 

 animals. Farm accounts should be learned as 

 we learn other things, by beginning with the 

 simple and proceeding gradually toward the more 

 complex. The aim here will be to give only 

 such details as may be necessary to inform the 

 judgment and explain and illustrate the simplest 

 principles of farm accounts. These, however, 

 do not differ, in the main, from the principles 

 embodied in commercial bookkeeping. 



The price of the farm labor must be established. 

 If the men board themselves the matter is sim- 

 ple, but if they receive a fixed price ($20 per 

 month) and board with the family, the matter 

 becomes more complex. For illustration: Let it 

 be supposed that the estimated value of board 



