Notes, Communications and Reviews. 
445 
but the reply is that by studying many farms it is possible to 
learn by what methods success is attained. “ Merely being an 
unusual man does not amount to anything, unless one does 
something definite. Successful farms differ from unsuccessful 
ones by perfectly tangible things.” 
The chapter on “ Farm Records and Accounts ” is valuable 
and interesting. A clear, though rather arbitrary, distinction 
is drawn between mere book-keeping and cost accounting, the 
system of accounts which the author recommends. This 
system he regards as an investigation into the internal organisa- 
tion and management of the farm, the object of which is to 
enable the farmer to organise his business more efficiently. 
Records or accounts kept on this principle makes it possible to 
see what style of farming pays best, and by what changes the 
farmer can tighten up his management in order to get the 
greatest profits. So great is the value of this system that it is 
now regarded as much more important than the mere book- 
keeping which involves only a record of sales and purchases. 
British agriculturists have hitherto paid little or no attention 
to this system, but the Institute for Research in Agricultural 
Economics, at Oxford University, has now taken it up, and 
with the co-operation of many farmers in England and Scotland 
has succeeded in establishing it pretty widely. By this means 
much useful information is being obtained which will prove of 
immense advantage to the farming community. 
“ An Agricultural Faggot.” — By R. H. Rew. One of the 
rarest gifts which nature bestows is that faculty of clear- 
sightedness which enables its possessor to view passing events 
in their proper perspective, to assign to them their tiue causes, 
and to understand and appreciate their meaning. It is a 
faculty much to be desired, though not always found, in the 
student of agricultural economics, and it is this faculty which 
has made the occasional articles and papers by Mr. Rew of so 
much value and interest to those for whom they have been 
intended. Those reprinted under the modest title . of An 
Agricultural Faggot have appeared at intervals during the 
past twenty-five years, and although their author suggests that 
some of them may have a flavour of antiquity, the fact is that 
the historical subjects are of perennial interest, whilst the 
chapters dealing with social and economic questions relate 
to matters which are still being debated and which aie 
still unsettled. The chapters are ten in number, the first 
of them being a reprint of the paper dealing with agri- 
cultural history which aroused so much interest at the 
Farmers’ Club so recently as May last. Others relate to 
