THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



107 



merchants' and other accounts for goods 

 supplied to the farmer on credit. The 

 prompt forwarding of accounts for every- 

 thing he buys should be insisted on by 

 the farinei', and these should be treated 

 in the same way as the invoices. When 

 a payment is made either to or by him, 

 the farmer should erase the amount from 

 the scrap book, either by using the rubber 

 stamp, if he have one, or by writing " paid, 

 snch a date," legibly, in blue pencil, across 

 the bill concerned. If the payment be 

 merely " on account," he will write the 

 words " paid £— on account, such a date." 

 By this means, the risk of ever paying an 

 account twice over is avoided. Under no 

 circumstances should a document be 

 removed from the scrap book. If a receipt 

 is to be gi ven let it be written out on another 

 form. A prudent farmer will not allow his 

 accounts with the merchants to run on 

 too long without settlement, and he will 

 do his best to get in any outstanding 

 debts within a reasonable time, but should 

 an account at either end of the scrap book 

 remain uncancelled, it is as well, at the 

 end of every three months or so, to cancel 

 all such by the words " carried forward " 

 in blue pencil, and to commence the 

 following month by entering the names 

 and amounts of these at the top of the 

 page, before pasting in any more bills. 

 This saves the trouble of having to wade 

 through a number of pages in search of 

 unpaid accounts, and brings them afresh 

 to the memory. 



STATEMENT. 



The Statement as per form No. 4, 

 may be prepared annually, half-yearly, 

 or at any tjme after a stocktaking, but 

 possibly the best time for a farmer 

 to summarise his position would be 

 during the winter (say 30th June, for 

 Natal), so that as far as possible his last 

 season's crops will by that time have been 

 turned into cash, and the expenditure en 

 account of the following season will not 

 be large. The profit shown in the specimen 

 statement here given represents the nett 

 improvement in the farmer's position for 

 the year ending 30th June, 1900, after 

 paying all household expenses and outlay 

 of every kind, and after writing off £157 

 10s. for depreciation of buildings, furni- 

 ture, and implements. This specimen 

 statement alludes to a previous one : in 



making out the first statement, however, 

 there need only be one entry on the left 

 hand side, viz., " sundry creditors," and 

 the balance, instead of showing the nett 

 improvement for the year, will represent 

 the farmers' position at that date ; sub- 

 sequent statements would be prepared as 

 per specimen. If a ledger were kept, this 

 statement, which is merely an ar])itrary 

 summary, would be superseded by a 

 proper balance sheet and profit and loss 

 account, made out from the ledger itself, 

 but where the farmer has practically or 

 entirely to dispei.se with outside assist- 

 ance, I think that a statement of this kind, 

 based upon a periodical stocktaking 

 (which can be eflPected with very little 

 trouble) will, in conjunction with the 

 cash book and scrap book already alluded 

 to, fully meet his requirements. Care 

 should be taken to include everything in 

 the statement. Such things as wo(H or 

 produce in the broker's hands, a wagon 

 or cattle on loan to a neighbour, creamery 

 or coal shares, etc., might easily be over- 

 looked. It is always well to write a 

 liberal amount off furniture, implements 

 vehicles, &c. ; in fact, to look at the value 

 of all such assets from the point of view 

 of a possible auction sale, rather than to 

 take their cost too muchinto consideration. 

 This remark applies with even greater 

 force to buildings, fences, &c., when same 

 are erected on hired land where no agree- 

 ment exists as to taking over of same by 

 the landowner on expiration of lease or 

 otherwise, as the heavy expenses con- 

 nected with their taking down and 

 removal seriously detracts from their 

 value as assets. Live stock, generally 

 speaking, should be valued at slightly 

 under the current market rates for the 

 district, without regard to what they 

 stood at the year before. Wool, mining 

 poles, forage, etc., should not be valued 

 at the full price which they would realise 

 if sold in a distant market, as they are 

 naturally not worth as much while still 

 on the farm : a liberal percentage should 

 always be allowed to cover cost of con- 

 veyance, agency charges and such like. 



Should there be anything in the fore- 

 going remarks which is not sufficiently 

 explicit, I shall be pleased to give further 

 advice in the matter of accounts specially 

 suited to his case, to any farmer address- 

 ing me through the Editor of the Journal. 



