20 ADDRESS. 



repudiates any system or plan for improvement, which includes that 

 among its possibilities. 



Well, I cannot wonder at this, as new ideas, urged upon the consid- 

 eration of any class of men, by one confessedly not practically 

 acquainted with the details of their calling, might naturally be received 

 by them with suspicion ; but bear in mind, that if these suggestions 

 seem new and untried, they are only so in their application to farming. 

 They constitute the chart by which every man engaged in every other 

 business, steers his course ; and in the very considerable thought I 

 have given to the subject, I fail to see wherein you differ essentially 

 from other business men, or why the system and method, found to be 

 necessary to success in other branches of business, are not equally so, 

 in farming. 



You may not, but I do, believe that a system of accounts similar to 

 what I have suggested, would save to the farmer, ten times the trouble 

 and time of keeping them, by showing him just where he makes, and 

 how he loses money, thus enabling him to save the days of drudgery, 

 and exhausting toil, expended upon crops which hardly return a new 

 dollar for an old one. Perhaps I have elaborated too much, and sug- 

 gested classification, to an extent greater than would be found desirable ; 

 but I believe, to use a homely phrase, that every tub should stand upon 

 its own bottom ; and that if a farmer does not make as much money 

 as he thinks he ought, he should be able to trace the loss to its proper 

 localit3% and let corn, fruit, hay, animals, or family expense, bear the 

 burden which belongs to each. 



Without the accounts, he can only " kinder guess" that he did not 

 cut so much hay as usual, or it didn't seem to go so far, or his cattle 

 didn't sell well, or his labor cost too much. Now would it not bo much 

 more satisfactory to the farmer, to bo able to turn to actual results 

 expressed in figures, and by reference to account with field No. 10 

 for instance, find that it cut so many tons of hay by actual weight, or 

 estimate sutHciontly accurate, worth so many dollars per ton. and that 

 it actually cost, — including interest and taxes, labor, depreciation of 

 productive capacity by the exhaustion of manure &c.. — so much 

 money, showing for field No. 10 a good fair profit. He then turns to 

 the Stock account, and finds that part of his loss occurred there, by 

 the low price of beef perhaps ; (" this is writ sarcastical, A. W.") and 

 he takes courage, as he reflects that it probably will not occur again, 

 (and it doesn't,) and he looks further, and finds that his family expen- 

 ses have be3n large ; that after reckoning the interest and taxes and 

 insurance on his house, his rent is pretty heavy, and that on the whole 

 his farm paid a fair income, but that his expenses have eaten up too 

 large a share of it, and then he studies expense account, to see if 

 retrenchment can be effected there ; and possibly he fancies that his 

 wife might get along with one less bonnet or shawl or dress, and if he 

 is a bold man he holds a consultation with her upon the subject, and 

 probably retires from the interview, musing deeply upon human weak- 

 ness, and liability to error. 



