Book-keeping 



a yard-stick, and goods like stack cloths, wagon 

 covers, staddle cloths, canvas, hessian, or wagon 

 ropes pass unmeasured. It is a common knowledge 

 in the trade that cheap rick covers are short in 

 measure, yet they seem to pass undetected. 



One of the most vexatious things about farming 

 is the goods lent to neighbours and not returned. 

 They will borrow, and the farmer cannot refuse, 

 partly because of his proverbial good nature and 

 partly because he may want to borrow himself 

 some day. The greater articles, such as ploughs 

 and carts, come back, but the ladders, wagon 

 ropes, riddles, rakes, forks, hoes, sacks, and pulse 

 cloths do not always return; in fact, as often as 

 not you never hear of them again. A large farmer 

 gave me his estimate of his yearly loss from this 

 cause, but I could not hope to be believed if I re- 

 peated it. 



Yet how many farmers trouble to organize a 

 simple system of only allowing one person — 

 themselves or their foremen — to lend goods and 

 that person to keep a loan book? The loan book 

 has on one side the article, date, and person by 

 whom fetched, and on the other side the date re- 

 turned. Then, if examined once a week or month, 

 the missing articles may be fetched back. After 

 keeping such a book for a time the writer found he 

 was effecting a considerable saving. It is true he 



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