FARM ACCOUNTS. 



231 



Commencing with the last quarter of the book, may be kept the 

 account with different fields, hired men and every person with 

 whom an account is kept. 



As the season begins in April, I would commence the year 

 with that month, as less produce is on hand and it is easier to 

 take an inventory, or an account of stock, as merchants call it, 

 which should always be done. It will require some judgment 

 to rightly estimate how much, more or less, each animal is worth 

 than one year before ; whether your buildings and fences are in 

 as good repair; whether your land has improved or lessened in 

 value ; whether the new tools purchased are equal in value to the 

 loss, by use, of the old ; whether you have more hay, grain or 

 vegetables on hand than at the commencement of the previous 

 year, all of which should be correctly ascertained, being appraised 

 at the market value. If an inventory is not taken, however 

 accurate the account of the receipts and expenditures may have 

 been, the real income or loss of the farm will not be known. 



The following will assist in understanding the plan to be 

 pursued : — 



Inventory of my Farm, Stock, Tools, ^c, April 1, 1862. 

 Farm, of about one hundred acres, upland and meadow, in 

 a poor state of cultivation, with a house, two small barns, 



