1909.] 



Farm Accounts. 



455 



farmer on quitting his holding is provided. Even without 

 systematic accounts, receipts for payments on behalf of 

 manures, feeding-stuffs, and such improvements as can be 

 claimed for, may be filed for reference, and thus supply in- 

 formation necessary for drafting a claim. But information 

 in regard to home-grown produce consumed on the holding 

 cannot be supplied in this way. 



(5) A statement of the actual profit or loss on the business 

 as a whole is furnished, and a more or less exact one of that 

 realised on the various departments. If the source and 

 amount of the profits and losses are known, there is a pos- 

 sibility — almost a certainty — that the farmer can so develop 

 the more profitable branches and reduce the less remunerative 

 ones as to show, under similar conditions, an improved 

 balance in the future. 



What Books to Keep. — No set of books or system of book- 

 keeping can be recommended as the best for farmers under 

 all circumstances. Much depends upon the size of the hold- 

 ing, the class of business carried on, whether there is any 

 retail trade in such things as milk or other dairy produce, 

 or poultry, and, lastly, upon the capabilities of the farmer 

 himself and the amount of time and labour he is willing to 

 devote to accounts. 



A Simple System. — One of the principal points which has 

 retarded the general adoption of book-keeping on small farms 

 is the amount of clerical work involved. For such holdings, 

 where the farmer usually works with his men, a very simple 

 system is desirable, one which requires few books or different 

 places of entry. Methods similar to that recommended by the 

 judges of the Royal Agricultural Society's Farm Book-keep- 

 ing Competition in 1883 are well adapted for such cases. A 

 short description of the books to be kept is given below. 



(1) Diary. — A diary for daily notes of cultivations, manures 

 applied, crops sown or harvested, quantities threshed, foods 

 consumed, and any observations the farmer may think 

 worthy of being recorded. Columns are provided for daily 

 receipts and payments, and also a form for labour account. 

 The whole of the entries for the day, however varied in 

 character they may be, are made in this book. The following 

 is an example of the form, but the space allotted to each day's 

 entries would, of course, be much greater. 



