22 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



expenses of living are usually entirely separate from the busi- 

 ness, and easily kept so, with the farmer, home and its expenses 

 are so closely united and blended with the farm and the busi- 

 ness, and so many of the products of the latter enter directly 

 If into the consumption of the former, without passing, as in the 

 other case, through the intermediate stage of bank bills, which 

 are easily kept account of, that entire accuracy of accounts, to 

 show the exact product or result of the year's or quarter's 

 operations, is rendered extremely difficult. 



Here again, you will likely say, what difference does it make ? 

 Why not let expenses and income all go right in together, and 

 if there is anything left at the end of the year, call it profit ? 

 Simply because, while income and expense should bear a certain 

 relation to each other, they are two separate and distinct things, 

 and should be kept so, to the end that the amount of each may 

 be always ascertainable. For instance, if the two are jumbled 

 up together, and no record kept of either, who can tell if a possi- 

 ble deficiency is due to the diminutiveness of one, or extrava- 

 gance in the other. I submit that as often at least as once in 

 each year, every business man should, by careful inventory and 

 estimate of value, ascertain the exact result of the year's opera- 

 tions. The value of the business and the feasibility of continu- 

 ing it, depend entirely upon the amount of income arising from 

 it, and this cannot be determined, unless expenses are kept by 

 themselves and entirely separate. I may be wrong when I say 

 that perhaps not one in ten among farmers ever takes a regular 

 account of stock, while nine out of ten merchants and manufac- 

 turers do it annually as a matter of course. I may at any rate 

 safely assert that it is as uncommon in the one class as it is 

 common in the other. Now why is this ? Is there necessity 

 existing in the one case and not in the other ? Is it not as 

 important for the farmer as for the manufacturer, to know if he 

 is making or losing money ? 



The manufacturer not only makes it his constant study to 

 know the cost of his various products, but at least once in each 

 year verifies his estimates of cost, by ascertaining actual 

 results. He is thus enabled to control his losses, and make his 

 gains larger, by reducing or increasing his business, in this or 

 that direction, according as he may find this or that article 

 among his products, more or less profitable. Is there any 



