No. 5. 



JVote Book and Cash Booh. 



173 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Note Book and Cash Book. 



KBCORD YOUR DOINGS, AND BE CAREFCL OF YOUR SAYINGS. ! 



Mr. Cabinet, — As your next number will | 

 be the last in the course of the current year, | 

 I forward a few lines to call the attention of] 

 your numerous, intelligent readers to the im- 

 portance of reviewing the whole of their pro- 

 ceedings from January to January, and to 

 mark attentively all their " hits and misses," 

 and to trace each to the true cause which has 

 produced it. 



It 13 presumed that every good and intelli- 

 gent farmer has kept a regular note-book, in 

 which he has entered all the prominent cir- 

 cumstances connected with his agricultural 

 operations and the results ; and also a book of, 



RECEIPTS. 



160 bushels wheat sold for 5 



229 do. oats, a— 



79 do. potatoes, a — 



8 do. field beans, a 1 75 14 00 



6.39 lbs. pork, a — 



14 calves sold for 



2800 lbs. butter 



257 doz. egES, (wife) 



Poultry, (boys) 



Lambs, mutton and small pork 



Lima beans, onions, &c., (girls) 



Surplus clover and orchard grass seed . ■ . 



Stock sold (young horse). 



do. cattle 



15 lbs. sugar-beet seed, raised and sold by 



boys 



2 pair of ferrets, sold by do. for rat-catch- 



This summary, when correctly made and 

 balanced, will show the same result as the 

 cash-book; and, by inspecting and criticising 

 it closely, the leak-holes in the purse will be 

 discovered, and the best way of stopping 

 them suggested. If they should be found to 

 be only small worm-holes, they can in gene- 

 ral be easily closed, if they are not too nu- 

 merous; but, if there should be found any 

 large rents, it will require the united exer- 

 tions of every member of the family to re- 

 pair them, and the Fooner they commence 

 operations the better for all concerned. 



These annual summaries should be copied 

 in a book, and continued from year to year, 

 and the older they become, the more interest- 

 ing will they appear. The writer of this has 

 continued this system for more than forty 

 years, with undiminished satisfaction, and, 

 although when he commenced it, he had but 

 few items to insert, and those of compara- 

 tively small amount, yet as he has endea- 

 voured to close the small holes and repair the 

 large rents, he has often been surprised at 

 the very gradual but regular increase of his 

 substance. 



Some object to any regular system of ac- 

 counts of receipts and expenses, on the 

 ground of its making people stingy and nig- 

 gardly : ehould this be the case, it would be 



entries, containing all sums of money re- 

 ceived, and for what ; his disbursements down 

 to the smallest item, and the objects of them. 

 This being done accurately, the balance of 

 the two sides of the account will exactly cor- 

 respond with the cash on hand ; this will be 

 a pleasing circum.stance, as it will prove that 

 the entries have all been correctly made. 

 Now go to work and make a conden.sed sum- 

 mary, to bring the whole into "a nut-shell," 

 or, in other words, to have " a bird's-eye 

 view," of the receipts and disbursements of 

 the whole year. By bringing all items of a 

 similar kind together, they will show off to 

 better advantage than when scattered through 

 the whole year's entries. Such a summary 

 might show itself something in the following 

 manner, viz : 



EXPENSES. 



Clothing, shoes, &c $67 39 



Groceries 36 22 



Furniture, including new horse-rake and large 



churn ". 33 17 



Market expenses, &c 16 12 



Wages paid in harvest, tc, 59 40 



Stock bought 137 00 



do. Berkshire pigs 20 00 



Pouthriown ram 15 00 



Smith's bill, paid quarterly 24 89 



Wheelwright for repairs 9 15 



Improved garden tools, seeds, and fruit-trees of 



best kinds, planted last spring 26 13 



700 bushels lime, put on grass-sod last fall 70 00 



15 bushels plaster of Paris 4 50 



10 bushels bone-dust and 1 <:wt. of crude salt- 

 petre for experiment 11 00 



a solid objection, but it remains to be proved 

 that it has this tendency; on the contrary, it 

 is believed that it will be found that liberal 

 expenditures in things useful, tends to pro- 

 mote prosperity. While some farmers are 

 too stingy to thrive or grow rich, others, by a 

 course of true liberality, are always going 

 ahead. Who ever witnessed a case of a 

 farmer being liberal in his expenditures for 

 manure, either mineral or vegetable, but 

 what was richly remunerated for it in his 

 crops 1 And who can point out the man that 

 boasts of never having disbursed a dollar for 

 manure of any kind, and say he is the better 

 off for being parsimonious 1 



Those who are careful to keep regular ac- 

 counts, are generally punctual in the dis- 

 charge of small dues, whilst those who make 

 no entries of debit or credit, are often defi- 

 cient in punctuality, and thereby do injustice 

 to others and impair their own standing in 

 the community. 



I have already written much more than 

 was intended, and shall now close with the 

 advice of an old man to a young one just 

 starting in the world ; " keep regular accu- 

 rate accounts, pay all your small dues with 

 .strict punctuality, tell the truth, and shame 

 the d— 1." D. F. 



Cheater County, Nov. 1840. 



