Farm Book-keeping. 
57 
The number of horses employed by the men is entered at 
the bottom of each sheet. It will be seen presently that some 
such record of the horse labour is essential. 
The advantage of these sheets is that the labour is analysed 
straight away daily. They can be kept by any farm foreman 
and on a large farm the trouble saved to the farmer in analys- 
ing his labour sheet at the end of each week is considerable. 
They are easily filed and need be totalled up only at the end of 
the year, thus reducing the entries for “labour” in each account, 
to one only. 
For Horse labour it is essential to open a ledger account. 
This account can be treated in one of two ways. Some figure 
may be taken as representing the value of a horse’s day and 
each account may then be charged with the value of horse 
work done for it as calculated on this basis. At the same time, 
the “ Horse account ” in the ledger is credited with these sums 
and debited with expenses. When the account is balanced at 
the end of the year a profit or loss on the horses is arrived at. 
Seeing, however, that horses are usually kept on the farm to do 
work, and not as a direct source of gain, it is not desirable to 
show a profit or a loss on them. The best course is to ascertain 
in the first place exactly what the cost of the horse labour on 
the farm is. To do this the ledger account is debited with (o) 
the valuation of horses and harness, &c., at the beginning of 
the year (5) the cost of food consumed during the year (c) the 
cost of shoeing ( d ) repairs to harness (e) rent and rates (/) 
establishment expenditure and any other expenses. It is credited 
with the valuation of the horses and harness at the end of the 
year, and the balance of the account represents the total cost of 
the horse labour on the farm. This cost is then shared out 
over the various accounts in proportion to the number of days 
of horse labour performed for each. The number of days is 
got in a few moments from the labour sheets and the appor- 
tionment is quite easily made. The Horse account appears 
thus : — 
HORSE LABOUR ACCOUNT. 
Dk. 
£ s. d. 
600 0 0 
60 0 0 
350 0 0 
49 0 0 
22 0 0 
15 0 0 
12 0 0 
110 0 0 
3 0 0 
To Valuation of Horses at beginning year 
„ Valuation of Harness, &c., at beginning of year 
„ Home-grown foods consumed during year . 
,, Grazing 
„ Shoeing 
„ Repairs to Harness ..... 
„ Rent and Rates 
Two 3-year old colts purchased 
Establishment Expenses 
£1,211 0 0 
