24 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



its valuation. He also opens an account with his barn, his 

 stock, his vehicles and tools, charging to each its value. He 

 must, of course, keep a cash account, and charge or credit to 

 some one of his various accounts every cent he pays out or 

 receives. 



He charges to each field expenditures for seed, manure and 

 labor, for share of tool account, and each day's work of himself 

 or his oxen for planting, cultivating and harvesting. If he sells 

 his crop, he credits the cash received. If he stores it for family 

 use, or to feed to his animals, he charges it to family expense, 

 or to the barn account, at whatever he could have sold it for. 

 After the crop is cleared he estimates the value of the field, 

 making allowance for whatever gain or loss in its condition and 

 crop-bearing capacity may have occurred since the previous 

 valuation, and the balance of the account shows what has been 

 made or lost from that section of his farm. 



His wood-lot he treats in the same manner. Starting with 

 the cost valuation, he charges the expense of clearing, thinning 

 out, cutting and hauling, even though he does it himself, and 

 credits all cash received for sales of wood or timber, and all 

 wood cut for his own family use, which he charges to family 

 expense account at the current rate. True, this is merely taking 

 from one pocket and putting into another ; but he is desirous of 

 ascertaining the exact cost of every product, and if there be 

 aggregate gain or loss, where it comes from or goes to. Accord- 

 ingly he treats, for instance, wood taken for his own use, so far 

 as the wood-lot is concerned, precisely as though he had sold it 

 to somebody else ; so far as family expense account goes, just as 

 if he had bought it of somebody else. At the close of the year 

 he credits the value of the wood-lot, making due allowance for 

 wood cut, on the one hand, and the growth on the other ; and 

 the balance of the account is the gain or loss, as the case may 

 be, arising from that portion of his farm. 



The barn account is charged with valuation and with every- 

 thing that goes into it — hay, grain, straw, &c., — at what it is 

 worth at the time of delivery, just as though it had been sold ; 

 with all labor, taking care of stock, &c., and all repairs upon 

 buildings, even though done with his own hands. It is credited 

 with all sales of produce made from it, with manvire sold or 

 delivered to various parts of the farm, (which latter is at the 



