286 Our Farming. 



We buy and sell for cash, but occasionally must wait on 

 some friend. Anything of this kind we put on a memorandum 

 account until paid. Large bills are paid by check on the Union 

 National Bank of Cleveland, and some checks received are sent 

 directly to them. These are not entered on the cash account, but 

 on the bank account, with the name of sender and what they were 

 for. So, from the cash account and bank account together, we 

 can always tell just where every dollar has come from or gone to. 

 The bank account is kept the same as the above cash account. 

 All we send them is put on one side, and all we check out on the 

 other. Once a month they return all canceled checks, and send 

 statement of account. Several times a year, always the first of 

 January and April, I write out in a little book a simple statement 

 of cash and credits, which shows just what we are worth outside 

 of the farm property, which is visible. So I always know just 

 how we stand, and if these simple business habits had not been 

 followed up for all these years, I know we would not be as well 

 off . For several years it was determined by wife and I that our 

 assets should figure up just an even $1,000 more every January 

 i st. And we did it. Then, in the spring, we would get some- 

 thing new, that we most wanted, to use up the excess, if any. 

 Then we would hold the reins pretty carefully during the summer 

 until we were sure we could lay up the $i ,000. You men who do 

 not keep account, did you never wonder what in the world had 

 become of your money ? You sell something, and get a lot, and 

 then it is gone. It is so with me, I know. But I have only to 

 turn to my cash and back accounts, and they show in black and 

 white where every cent went. I do not expect old farmers will 

 change much, but, my friends, encourage your children to be 

 business farmers, and know what they are about. They will bless 

 you for it some day. It will be better than money for them, 

 because a good business h^bit will help them to make money, and 

 they cannot be swindled out of it, or lose it, by want of experience 

 or by carelessness. One of my daughters keeps my cash account, 

 and everything is all straight, and my son and all the family have 

 been brought up to keep everything straight. They all go to the 

 family pocketbook when they please no asking me, as they are 

 full grown and we are all one family. But the books must show 

 where all money goes. If there is a shortage of a few cents, they 

 must think till they find it not on account of the value of the 

 money always, but to teach them to be accurate. I do not have 

 to enforce this. They are more troubled than I when the cash is 

 short. They have grown up in a businesslike atmosphere, if you 

 will excuse me for saying it. 



A man need not always keep account with his crops. I 

 found it a necessity to do this until I got settled on what would 

 pay me best. In no other way could I have told. I do not keep 

 account now, as a rule. Have got past the point where it is 



