Farm Book-keeping. 
59 
the horse labour. To simplify the apportionment, one beast 
may be taken as the equivalent of six to eight sheep. 
Purchased Foods and Manures. — It will save a great deal 
of work to charge foods and manures purchased straight away 
to the accounts that are to use them. Thus nitrate of soda 
and basic slag can be charged direct to the “ Arable Land 
Account ” and the “ Grazing Account ” respectively, and it 
will often be possible to charge foods in the same way. 
When, however, there is one store for the foods purchased 
for all classes of live stock, this cannot be done and a ledger 
account must be opened under the heading of “ Purchased 
Foods and Manures.” This account is then debited with foods 
and manures purchased, and credited from time to time with 
foods consumed and manures applied. Simultaneously the 
various stock accounts will be debited with what they eat,, 
and the land accounts with the manures they receive. The 
balance of the account at the end of the year should represent 
the value of stores unconsumed, and is carried forward to the 
debit of the year following. 
Implements. — These, too, require a ledger account, which 
must be debited at the beginning of the year with (a) the 
valuation of implements on hand. During the year it must 
further be charged with (b) repairs, ( c ) cost of new implements. 
The account is credited with the value of implements on hand 
at the end of the year, and the balance of the account repre- 
sents the cost of the implements for the year. The common 
way to arrive at the valuation of the implements at the end 
of the year is to deduct a certain percentage from the valuation 
at the beginning of the year, and then add the cost of any 
new implements. This method is inaccurate and therefore 
objectionable. The proper course is to prepare an inventory 
and valuation of the implements on the farm and then to 
estimate the life of each implement. By dividing the years 
of life into the value, the annual depreciation is arrived at. 
The inventory may conveniently be set out thus : — 
Implement 
Valuation 
in 1906 
Estimated 
Life 
Annual 
Depreciation 
Valuation 
in 1907 
Valuation 
in 1908, etc. 
£ 
s. 
(1. 
Years. 
£ 
8. 
d. 
£ 
s. 
d. 
£ 
s. 
d. 
Cart 
20 
0 
0 
20 
1 
0 
0 
10 
0 
0 
18 
0 
0 
Water cart . 
10 
0 
0 
15 
13 
0 
9 
7 
0 
8 
14 
0 
Corn drill 
7 
10 
0 
20 
7 
(i 
7 
2 
6 
6 
15 
0 
Iron plough . 
3 
10 
0 
25 
3 
0 
3 
7 
0 
3 
4 
0 
Seed harrows 
2 
10 
0 
25 
2 
0 
2 
8 
0 
2 
6 
0 
Binder . 
30 
0 
0 
10 
3 
0 
0 
27 
0 
0 
24 
0 
0 
Mower . 
10 
0 
0 
15 
13 
0 
9 
7 
0 
8 
14 
0 
Boiler . 
12 
0 
0 
25 
10 
0 
11 
10 
0 
11 
0 
0 
Totals 
— 
— 
6 
8 
6 
89 
1 
6 
82 
13 
0 
