Book-keeping 



is stupendous and might as well be thrown into the 

 street. If spent in purchasing sacks, how much 

 better off the farmer would be! Good sacks, taken 

 care of, are an excellent investment, but they are 

 seldom cared for. Regardless of the fact that they 

 cost from is. to 28. each, they are used on the 

 farm, too often, as waste material, to stop up any 

 gap or cover any hole. The farmer at the year's 

 end wonders where his new sacks have gone, 

 so that it has come to be looked on as one of the 

 standard mysteries of agriculture. As a matter 

 of fact:, some are borrowed — and are kept — some 

 have gone away with goods to be returned, some 

 left out in the rain to rot, some left in a corner 

 for rats and mice to gnaw, and the remainder 

 have either been nailed to the dog kennel, the 

 hen coop, or the chaffhouse window. 



There seems a difficulty always, when the 

 farmer, in the course of his attempts at keeping 

 general accounts, tries to estimate the cost of 

 living taken from the farm, but it is not an 

 insoluble problem. There is the cost of the 

 horses used for driving and hunting, and their 

 upkeep. The groom's or gardener's wages, the 

 amount the shooting (if he has it) would let for, 

 and the same with the fishing and game rights, 

 the foodstuffs, and milk consumed, and his house 

 rent. 



97 h 



