FARMING AS A BUSINESS. 27 



that if these suggestions seem new and untried, they are only 

 so in their application to farming. They constitute the chart 

 by which every man engaged in every other business steers his 

 course ; and in the very considerable thought I have given to 

 the subject, I fail to sec wherein you differ essentially from 

 other business men, or why the system and method, found to 

 be necessary to success in other branches of business, are not 

 equally so in farming. 



You may not, but I do, believe that a system of accounts 

 similar to what I have suggested, would save to the farmer ten 

 times the trouble and time of keeping them, by showing him 

 just where he makes, and how he loses money, thus enabling 

 him to save the days of drudgery and exhausting toil, expended 

 upon crops which hardly return a new dollar for an old one. 

 Perhaps I have elaborated too much, and suggested classifica- 

 tion to an extent greater than would be found desirable ; but I 

 believe, to use a homely phrase, that every tub should stand 

 upon its own bottom ; and that if a farmer does not make as 

 much money as he thinks he ought, he should be able to trace 

 the loss to its proper locality, and let corn, fruit, hay, animals, 

 or family expense bear the burden which belongs to each. 



Without the accounts he can only " kinder guess " that he 

 did not cut so much hay as usual, or it didn't seem to go so far, 

 or his cattle didn't sell well, or his labor cost too much. Now 

 would it not be much more satisfactory to the farmer, to be able 

 to turn to actual results expressed in figures, and by reference 

 to account with field No. 10 for instance, find that it cut so 

 many tons of hay by actual weight, or estimate sufficiently 

 accurate worth so many dollars per ton and that it actually cost 

 — including interest and taxes, labor, depreciation of productive 

 capacity by the exhaustion of manure &c., — so much money, 

 showing for field No. 10 a good fair profit. He then turns to 

 the stock account, and finds that part of his loss occurred there, 

 by the low price of beef perhaps ; (" this is writ sarcastical, 

 A. W.") and he takes courage, as he reflects that it probably 

 will not occur again (and it doesn't,) and he looks further, and 

 finds that his family expenses have been large ; that after 

 reckoning the interest and taxes and insurance on his house, 

 his rent is pretty heavy, and that on the whole his farm paid a 

 fair income, but that his expenses have eaten up too large a 



