DETERMINATION OF METHOD 17 



or pages, should be reserved for each class of manure pur- 

 chased, and by balancing the record the stocks on hand at 

 any time are disclosed, whilst by casting the field columns 

 the charge against each field, or crop, is ascertained. It 

 is hardly necessary to indicate the method of ruling such 

 a record sheet, but with obvious modifications the form 

 suggested for Feeding Stuffs (Table I) may be adopted. 



The Feeding Stuffs Book is intended for use only in 

 connexion with purchased foods of all kinds. Its purpose 

 is to show stocks purchased and on hand at any time, and 

 to give an analysis of the consumption of purchased food 

 by the various classes of live stock on the farm. In Table I 

 is given a convenient form for this record. 



The Granary Book records the utilization of the home- 

 produced corn. More detail is needed than in the Feeding 

 Stuffs Book, because records must be kept of produce sold, 

 and used for seed, as w T ell as of that which is fed to live 

 stock on the farm. A ruling suggested for this book forms 

 Table II. 



For an Implement and Machinery record and valuation 

 a form of Stock Book is needed which will show the imple- 

 ments and machinery grouped as they are required for the 

 various departments of the farm, and with provision for 

 writing off their depreciation annually. All the items must 

 be valued at the outset at cost less depreciation, or if they 

 are newly bought, at cost, and in each succeeding year 

 provision must be made for the depreciation which has 

 occurred through use and age. The usual way of depre- 

 ciating implements is to knock off a fixed percentage at the 

 close of the year from the total value when the year began, and 

 then to add the cost of purchases during the year. This is 

 objectionable because it can be only a rough approximation. 

 The better plan is to consider each implement by itself and 

 to assign it a life. The depreciation will then be got by 

 dividing the cost or value by the number of years' life. 

 Many tools and implements will always retain a certain 

 value, whatever their age, if they are kept in repair, so that 

 it is not always desirable to depreciate the value of an article 



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