50 
Farm Book-keeping. 
by the custom under which he holds, by his markets, and by 
various other circumstances. 
There is no doubt that the farmer, anxious to improve his 
business methods by embarking on a system of book-keeping 
which will enable him to ascertain costs, cannot get much help 
from the text books. There are plenty at his disposal, and 
most of them excellent as far as they go, but there is the serious 
objection to them all that after leading him through a maze of 
operations more or less intricate, they bring him only to a 
knowledge of the gross profits on his different operations. 
Gross profits resolve themselves too often into net losses when 
the truth about the accounts is ari’ived at, and nothing can be 
more deceptive or less useful than a “ Profit and Loss ” account 
comprising only gross profits and losses — however correct the 
balance of such an account may be. As a matter of fact, the 
farmer, seeking for a system of “ costs ” book-keeping, has to 
go back nearly a hundred years to find an account of anything 
likely to be of service to him. The subject of farm accounts 
did not escape the attention of Arthur Young, and with 
characteristic thoroughness he evolved a system which is of the 
greatest value to the agriculturist. This system is described in 
the “ Farmer’s Calendar ” and, though the extreme detail 
recommended by Young in certain directions is open to 
cx-iticism as entailixxg unpi*oductive labour, this does not 
constitute a serious objection, for one great advantage of the 
method is its absolute elasticity, so that the degree of complexity 
to which the accounts are carried is a matter entirely for 
individual coxxyenience or capacity. 
No great knowledge of accountancy is demanded by the 
method. The first step is to consider in what departmexxts of 
the farm profits may be made ; the second step is to open 
ledger accounts for each of these depax-tments. The important 
thing to be borne in mind is that, sooner or later, every item of 
income and expenditure on the farm must be brought into one 
or other of these accounts. It will be seen later that certain 
subsidiary, or auxiliary, accouxxts may have to be opened, but 
before the books are closed at the end of the year, their 
balances will have been transferred to one or other of the first 
mentioned accounts. The departments in which profits can be 
made depend, of course, upon the natux’e of the farming, and 
each one must decide for himself what he requires. For 
ordinary mixed farming there will be only “ Live Stock 
Accounts ” and “ Land Accounts.” These can be split up as 
desired xxnder various headings, and it might be mentioned that 
those which follow here are merely by way of illustration. 
The arrangement nxay be simpler or more complex according 
to taste. 
