260 
Managevient of a Homo Farm. 
should be kept free from loose stones, the perfection of a road 
being its smooth and not over convex surface. 
The golden rule in regard to roads must ever be " keep clear 
of ruts." This is not only a sure test of a well-kept road, pyblic 
or private, but also a maxim to be enforced on drivers, who should 
be required to drive out of the tracks. A little firmness and per- 
severance may be needed to get this rule observed ; but the thing 
has been done, and can be done again. It is desirable that the 
roads outside the park-walls, as well as within, should show a con- 
siderable amount of care, " as if they belonged to some one." 
This can be best accomplished by the owner taking the keeping 
of so many miles of the adjacent roads into his own hands, in 
return for which the parish releases him from contributing to 
the other roads maintained by the rates. Such an arrangement 
would often obviate much heart-burning, jealousy, and complaint. 
6. Farm Accounts. 
These are often, on such establishments, unnecessarily compli- 
cated and extensive. The separate field system and distinct 
profit-and-loss account for every description of stock, live or dead, 
with days and half-days of horse and manual labour, charged 
under the various heads, however desirable in theory, are rarely- 
satisfactory in practice. A merchant may readily enough have 
a correct sugar or broadcloth account, because he can reckon his 
purchases, sales, and residue of these goods distinct from the rest 
of his stock-in-trade ; but a farm must be viewed as a whole, 
because one part is not only generally essential to the rest, but the 
profit on one entry often includes dealings with several other 
parts of that whole. We respectfully submit that the object of 
keeping accounts ought to be to impart clearness and precision — 
not to complicate, still less to mystify, the system of manage- 
ment adopted. Yet on the home-farm an accurate and intelligible 
system of accounts is essential. Even if the proprietor has but 
little leisure or taste for looking into the practical part, he will still 
like to know exactly how matters are proceeding ; the auditor and 
agent will both require a strict account of money matters, while 
a good and bona fide balance-sheet at the year's end is what every 
good manager will delight to see. 
The first point will be rightly to distinguish and separate the 
labour and expenses and receipts which belong essentially to the 
farm from that part which does not. The latter expenses may be 
entered in a " weekly account current " betwixt the principal and 
the manager. This will include all road-labour and expenses, 
the hands usually employed at estate and timber haulage and 
with the jobbing-cart, any blacksmiths or mechanics at work 
under the bailiff's directions, and also any pensions and gratuities. 
Such account would stand thus : — 
