140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



you will get the total cost of labor for the year. Now, at the 

 end of the year, in your general labor account, you have got 

 all the expenses of labor, whether for board or salaries, or 

 whatever it is — it is all there. In each account under your 

 cows, under your apples, or under your general crop you have 

 the number of hours of labor; then it is simply a question of 

 dividing the total expense for labor by the total number of 

 hours for the average cost of labor per hour. It seems to me 

 this is the simplest method I have seen. I can only close, Mr. 

 Chairman, by once more commending the excellent paper, and 

 I do hope it will influence more people to keep accounts. 

 Don't be too ambitious. One account run through a year for 

 one kind of crop will be more valuable than half a dozen for 

 four or five or six months. 



Mr. Wheeler. My idea in getting Miss Goddard here was 

 not so much to give a general idea of how people could keep 

 books, but with the idea of using a bookkeeper co-operatively. 

 It seems to me that while the Massachusetts farmers may not 

 be able to afford to hire bookkeepers individually, this system 

 of co-operative bookkeeping and a co-operative bookkeeper 

 can be worked out advantageously. I think we lack trained 

 bookkeepers along this line, and I feel sure that just as soon 

 as there is a call for bookkeepers to go around and make the 

 circuit of different farms, this class of bookkeepers will be 

 supplied by the business colleges and the agricultural high 

 schools which are now advertising various trades, — the 

 business and agricultural bookkeeper. I think we are at the 

 present time in need of bookkeepers who can do the sort of 

 work which Miss Goddard has described here to-day. 



Mr. Foster. I would like to inquire of the lecturer how 

 small a dairy or farm she knows of that has employed a co- 

 operative bookkeeper. 



Miss Goddard. Well, I think none would be too small. 

 I know of a case of a farmer who had four cows and perhaps 

 not more than forty or fifty hens, and other things accordingly. 

 It took me only one day a month to do all the work. 



The Chairman. The next number on the program is a 

 lecture on Alfalfa. Now, alfalfa in New England is in its 



