ADVANTAGES OF FARM ACCOUNTS. 325 



knows tliat the product of his farm this year has been favorable 

 or unfavorable ; but not many would know whether this iden- 

 tical field has done the best it could ; perhaps corn or wheat 

 would have done better here fhan potatoes. A few years of 

 testing this field in this methodical way would give him a 

 knowledge of the capability of this ground, which he could not 

 otherwise obtain (and so of all the items of the farm), and learn 

 its wants and capacity. 



2. It would promote increase in his products. Very soon 

 he would not be growing corn on land adapted to produce some 

 other grain, or perhaps hay. You would not see his hay- field 

 turned into pasturage, nor a corn-field on the north side of a 

 hill where there was a south side, which he could cultivate just 

 as well. Neither would you find his barn full of cows of an 

 indiscriminate quality, nor his pigpen full of scurvy swine, nor his 

 hen-house cramped into the north corner of his barn cellar. He 

 would be likely to arrange his outlays so as to reap the most profit. 



3. Neatness and order about the farm. Let a farmer keep 

 an exact account of outlay and income, and it will promote 

 economy in every department. He will soon learn that an 

 untidy yard is a constant bill of expense ; that rickety fences, 

 broken-hinged gates and swinging barn doors require looking 

 after ; that fences, gates and doors should be made of good mate- 

 rials well put together. Hay wasted in the barnyard is a loss. 

 An unpainted house or barn wears out faster than one well paint- 

 ed and cared for. Ploughs, harrows, harnesses and carriages 

 last longer when well cared for than when exposed to all kinds 

 of weather, and generally he will learn that economy requires 

 neatness. 



4. He will find that method in his accounts will promote 

 the spirit of inquiry into the best methods of agriculture ; he 

 will not be satisfied with the corn in one end of the bag and the 

 meal in the other, because his father did so ; he will be stretch- 

 ing his experiments out into the unknown and reachhig forth 

 to those things which are before, and so he will not only be 

 teaching himself but others also ; he will be a discoverer. He 

 will want to know if some kind of manure cannot be manufac- 

 tured which will fertilize more ground than that which he and 

 his father have used ; he will be inquiring whether this plough 

 or that harrow cannot be improved so as to do more and better 



