No. 4.] FARM ACCOUNTING. 125 



co-operating in this matter, they arranged with me to do their 

 work, going from one to another in regular rotation. In this 

 way I have been able to give each one all the time necessary 

 for the work, delegating, in each case, to the man in charge, 

 the keeping of such records as must be made daily. Every- 

 thing in the way of bookkeeping which could wait until my 

 return was left for me to do, — the making out of all bills, the 

 balancing of the books, the analysis of the bills to be paid, the 

 keeping of all permanent records, and so forth. In this way 

 the coming of the bookkeeper became not a burden, but more 

 and more a help. 



In order to show you how it is possible to keep up a system 

 of bookkeeping in this way, and how practical it really is, I 

 will endeavor to describe, in a general way, the system which 

 I have used. 



Of the records which the farmer himself must keep, the most 

 important is, of course, a cash book. It is imperative that we 

 have a careful record of every item of expense or receipt, large 

 or small, whether a check or a cash transaction. Such records 

 must necessarily be made daily, so that the care of them de- 

 volves on the farmer himself. The balancing of this cash book 

 may, however, be left for the bookkeeper. She might even 

 relieve the farmer of the task of balancing his check book, if 

 he did not care to bother with it himself. 



Right here let me say that I hope every farmer does have a 

 bank account and does pay all his bills by check. I have been 

 surprised to find how many people there are who do not make 

 use of such an institution as the bank. I know of a man who 

 had been in business for himself for years, with good success, 

 who is now the efficient manager of a farm, but who says that 

 never, until within a year, did he do business with any bank. 

 He told me that many times he had had several thousand 

 dollars in cash in his home, hidden under rugs, and so forth; 

 and when I asked him wdiat happened on sweeping day, he 

 replied that his wife took good care of it, that none was ever 

 lost. Would any of you think of mowing a ten-acre field of 

 oats with a scythe when there was a good mowing machine 

 in your own barn? Of course not. Neither, I hope, would any 

 of you think of keeping any quantity of money in your home 



