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say he doesn't know what his income is going to be. He doesn't know how 

 many people are going to pay their bills; neither does the doctor, and no 

 business man knows exactly what his income is going to be, although he 

 knows more about it now than he did in former years, because he is required 

 to pay an income tax. There are a good many people now who know more 

 about their incomes than they knew before. I think you will agree with me 

 there so we have a little more information than we would have had a few 

 decades ago. Any lawyer, any business man, any farmer knows that for a 

 period of years there is a level below which his income does not go. This 

 lower level, then, is the sum of money to use in making a plan, or a budget. 

 If the farmer has a good year, and he sells his corn more profitably, or If 

 the sick people pay the physician their bills, these men may have a "plus" 

 balance. But the plus balance isn't the thing that disturbs people it is the 

 minus balance that disturbs them. Because of the uncertainty of the income 

 we cannot excuse ourselves in the matter of making a budget. We will take 

 this minimum sum and we will block out the proportion it seems to us we 

 want to spend for food, for clothing, for shelter, and' so on. We will put it 

 down in black and white and then endeavor to work according to plan. 



Another thing don't feel that if you do make a plan and later change it, 

 that it was not good. That does not follow at all. A plan is not an iron- 

 clad thing. It would be a very poor thing if we could' not change it. Don't 

 feel it was useless to make it because you had to change it. It is only because 

 we have something down before us in black and white that we appreciate 

 the fact that a change is necessary, and therefore we decide to do the thing 

 we want to do. It gives an opportunity for deciding what we most want. 



Another thing that frequently bothers people when they attempt to keep 

 accounts or work on a budget, is balancing the accounts. We all hear about 

 the men down at the bank who stay there late at night to locate a penny. 

 Fortunately, it doesn't make a bit of difference whether your household 

 accounts balance or not. Of course, you would not want a tremendous differ- 

 ence in them, but suppose they don't balance. You know where the income 

 has gone just the same. If you are a few dollars off in your balance, it does 

 not really affect the value of your budget or your accounts. 



Another thing sometimes bothers people. They say: "I forget. I tried 

 to set down the things I spent today, and I cannot remember. I am lacking 

 fifty-nine cents and I cannot remember what I got." You know a very com- 

 forting thing to have in your budget is a column with the heading, "Un- 

 accounted," and when you forget an item put the sum in that column and 

 go serenely on your way. That was so comforting to me that I Just pass it 

 on to you. And don't feel that because you have a few dollars at the end 

 of the month in your "Unaccounted" column that the accounts are a failure, 

 for they are not. You will have the big plan. I have discovered that while 

 it is difficult to start people to keeping a budget, it is almost impossible to 

 stop them. The comforting thing is that once having done it you cannot 

 stop it because you find it so well worth while. So if you are really inter- 

 ested in getting the thing you want out of your income, I should like to very 

 earnestly commend to you a plan for the use of your income for this next 

 year. 



PRESIDENT MANN: We will now have a song by Buster Patterson. 



Vocal solo Buster Patterson 



PRESIDENT MANN: No one has had a greater influence in the 

 development of the agriculture of the State in the last more than a quarter 

 of a century; no one has had a greater influence in the development of the 

 Farmers' Institute; no one has had a greater influence in directing the 

 energies of the Farmers' Institute along those lines necessary for it to 

 perform its best function than our next speaker. I cannot help but fre- 

 quently think of him in connection with Simonides, that great old character 

 in Wallace's "Ben Hur," who sat in his chair and managed the commerce 

 of the world; not that he moved the ship or loaded the cargoes, but that his 

 wisdom extended throughout the universal world and directed its commerce. 

 So this man has sat in his chair and influenced the development of agricul- 

 ture in this State, just as old Simonides did the commerce of the world in 



