152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



is owed you (bills, not accounts), less what was owed you at the 

 start. 



Purchases: the cash paid out plus what you owe (bills, not ac- 

 counts), less what you owed at the start. 



Bills due or payable are memorandum transactions that have not 

 before appeared in the journal, and are put in in a lump sum to 

 balance up, and then reversed and taken out to start the next period. 



Accounts due or payable have already been entered, and the 

 balances will appear on your resource and liability sheet or trial 

 balance when books are closed and balanced. 



Cash, file, inventory, entry and profit and loss columns are neces- 

 sary in the journal. Also date and narrow column for checking post- 

 ings. 



Others are optional, as poultry, pigs, sheep, produce, fruit, gi'ain, 

 tillage, expense, labor, household, stable, improvements and whatever 

 others you need. 



Bills receivable taken into consideration when you start your 

 books should consist only of good, live customers you are sure will 

 pay; slightly doubtful ones may be carried in a suspense account. 

 Poor ones should not enter your books at all, though a record may 

 be kept for reference. 



Labor should be charged with your time, the time of the hands 

 and their board. 



Labor may be credited regularly and departments charged in 

 proportion as time was spent. This provides a way of keeping the 

 time charged up though the hands are paid irregularly. 



Charge yourself regularly with a certain amount of money. Keep 

 it in a separate pocket from your business money. This does not 

 intend to cover household expenses, but saves charging up small 

 amounts spent for personal use. 



Household may be charged with fuel, cash paid out for groceries, 

 and products exchanged for supplies or consumed. 



Simplest way is to charge up time, seeds, fertilizer, manure, etc., 

 used on house garden instead of produce as used. 



Household should be credited with board for the hands and such 

 labor as is performed in caring for poultry, milk or butter. 



It is not at all superfluous to keep track of the meals consumed 



at your table. When tlie cost is computed at the end of the year 



your small bank account may be the result of too much entertaining. 



Live as you like and entertain as much as you wish, but know just 



what you can afford. 



