No. 4.] FARM ACCOUNTING. 139 



if properly conducted, with the best conditions for right Hving 

 that there are. Now, the way to do that is to show your boy 

 that you are doing it; and if you are not, why not? And I 

 beheve there is no better way or cheaper way for you to get 

 your bookkeeping done than to put those children at it. The 

 boy in the high school can just as well keep the accounts Miss 

 Goddard has suggested as anybody, and the girls, I think, 

 within reason. Now, I do not mean to throw any cold water 

 on Miss Goddard's suggestions, because those children will not 

 stay with us always. I think the co-operative scheme is 

 excellent, but I do want to emphasize the desirability of 

 interesting the young people in the business affairs of the 

 farm, because when it comes right down to it tha+ is what 

 they are going out to look for when they look for a position, 

 — the dollars and cents in it. We know that there is no 

 better place than the farm. Now, one other thing I would 

 like to speak of: Miss Goddard spoke of the purchase slip. 

 I have found no simpler way of keeping the records on the 

 college farm than the record made at the time of the happen- 

 ing, because I want to emphasize the fact that the time to 

 make a record is when it happens, whether it is a pail of milk 

 weighed or the sale of a pig, and the man who makes that 

 record should be the man on the spot. Very frequently 

 mistakes will occur that are easily corrected if you can show 

 the original record. They may be rather hard to decipher 

 sometimes if the man happens to be a Polander, but I believe 

 this is an excellent plan. Miss Goddard spoke of the classi- 

 fication of items, speaking of the feed record. I agree very 

 heartily. The time to classify items is when it happens. I 

 haven't found it quite as simple as Miss Goddard said, but 

 anyhow w^e do what we can along that line. Now, this classi- 

 fication is not so serious. Do not keep too many accounts the 

 first year. Suppose you say this year, "We will keep an 

 account of potatoes and find out what it costs to raise po- 

 tatoes." I have been working on this accounting matter a 

 good deal, because I believe every man should know what is 

 doing in his business. Keep accounts as Miss Goddard has 

 suggested, with the amount of labor spent in different operations 

 in hours. Keep a general labor account of your men so that 



