The Farm of Madame Rocquigmj. 
15 
Here again we are told, " The books of these gentlemen are 
perfect : not a detail escapes them. They draw up an exact 
account of each of the successive operations of their system. 
They have first a cash-book and a great ledger very regularly 
kept, then a labour-book, and an auxiliary record based upon 
plans (t'tabli en tableaux )".* 
To lighten their task they have distributed the arable land 
into 36 plots, duly numbered, which follow the natural divisions 
of the country ; the homestead, grove, (Sec, have also each cueir 
proper number assigned to them. To each entry in the cash or 
labour-book a number is appended which refers that outlay to its 
proper object ; when the great ledger is made up, the task is thus 
much facilitated. Each week the totals are cast and entered in 
columns in a special book, from which the totals are easily 
obtained at the year's end. The inventory is then drawn up ; 
not only is a general account of the crops made out from these 
particular records, but the distillery, the flock, the dairy, the 
manure-store, have each their separate account, which the jury 
examined with the most lively interest. 
These books show that "in the five first years of their 
tenancy, ^Messrs. Rocquigny have made profits amounting to 
1943Z. or 388Z. per annum on 242 acres." I have quoted the pre- 
ceding passage in detail, because it speaks not of the books of 
the model-farm or college — not those of the farm-manager, 
whose time is his employer's, and who, if wise, will be anxious 
not only to do right, but to show in black and white that he has 
managed faithfullv and well — but the practice of a tenant-farmer. 
Hei'e, as in a previous instance of well-kept books, a lady's 
name figures; not as assistant, but as head of the firm. It 
may be questioned whether both in town and country, women 
do not now play a more important part in the management 
of accounts in France than in England ; indeed, the passing 
traveller hardly fails to see signs of this in the shop, or the hotel. 
Many passages in the records which I quote speak in most flat- 
tering terms of the energy with which the modern Frenchwoman, 
* If I rightly understand this expression, it represents a method similar to 
that adopted by Mr. Jonas in Cambridgeshire. That gentleman keeps the plan 
of each field on a separate page in an interleaved map-book ; on the other side the 
culture, cropping, and produce for a series of years are neatly and concisely 
recorded. Thus, at a glance, a most instructive retrospect can be taken. For 
open fields witii but few natural divisions this plan has special advantages, 
because the same field is often variously subdivided among different kindred 
crops ; and a measurement, duly recorded on the plan, is the sole abiding record 
of the line of demarcation. These are agricultural statistics, the use of -which 
■will not be gainsaid. When, through such farm-accounts, farmers have become 
familiar with the use of these records to the indkidwU, they will probably become 
sensible of the service which records, vesting on a broader basis, render to the 
community at large, and so to each member thereof. 
