AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
323 
examples and explanations, and would request 
similar reports from others, that a more perfect 
system may be arranged than we now possess. 
First I take a small quarto blank-book of about 
150 pages, in which I record, at the beginning 
of the year, the number and age of each kind of 
stock, leaving room after each animal, or class, 
to make further entries concerning them. After 
each cow entered by name, will appear the time 
of calving, disposal made of the calf, and if 
raised, a description by which it may afterwards 
be known. Under the head of sheep, will ap¬ 
pear their number and kinds, the time of the 
beginning and close of the lambing season, 
number of lambs reared, season of washing, 
shearing, weight of fleece, &c. 
Next I make a daily journal in the same book; 
each day using one line across two opposite 
pages, on one page giving the date, and record 
of the weather, on the other page the operations 
of the farm; thus two weeks will occupy two 
pages, and a few lines will be left for remarks. 
To illustrate I will give a week’s record from 
my journal, beginning Jan. 1st, although there 
is less variety and interest at this season of the 
year. 
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Then may follow any general remarks of in 
terest, as the arrival of birds, or appearance o 
flowers denoting the advancement or delay o 
seasons, the arrival or departure of friends, &c. 
These entries will occupy but a few minutes 
daily, and I can assure an}' one, from experience, 
that reference to them is often not only a source 
of great pleasure, but of convenience and pro¬ 
fit; for in settling with your men, by recalling 
the ciicumstances of weather, labor, &c., you 
can satisfy them of every day’s absense you 
may have charged to them. I also devote a 
page to each crop, where appears under the 
name of the crop and number of the field, (which 
I take from my map of the farm which hangs 
by my desk,) the date of plowing, cultivation, 
and harvesting, with the amount of labor for 
each, also the amount of seed and its prepara¬ 
tion, if any, and finally the amount produced. 
These items may be entered directly or made up 
at leisure from the daily journal. 
During the haying season I also keep a se¬ 
parate record of the labor, number of loads each 
day, and from each field, and where stored, the 
particular arrangement of which any one can 
devise. 
This book lasts one year, and may commence 
with the first of January or first of April. 
In another more permanent book I keep my 
accounts with n^ laborers, and the debit and 
credit of the farm. 
The farm is made debit to labor, tools, seed, 
and manure purchased, &c. Whatever is sold 
or used in the family is placed on the credit 
side, while no note is made of the grain, roots, 
&c., consumed by the stock. The cattle or sheep 
killed or sold are credited, but the calves or 
lambs raised and kept are not, as we suppose 
that unless a great change is made in the stock 
its value will remain about the same, so the new 
tools purchased will equal the injury from wear 
on the old ones. 
From all these sources, we may, at the end of 
the year, make out a great balance sheet of all 
the expenses and products of the farm, carrying 
out in the last column only those products which 
have been sold or consumed by the family. If 
the whole amount of labor is charged, the value 
of the improvements made, or their cost, must 
be entered on the credit side. In the account 
with each field and crop, no charge is made for 
manures, except the labor of applying it, as it 
is supposed that its produce consumed on the 
farm will make as much more for other crops. 
In arranging our balance sheet, if any portion 
of the farm has been highly improved, or se¬ 
riously injured by the system pursued, it should 
be noticed; also any important change in the 
value of the stocks, tools, and buildings. 
I employ also a third book, still more perma¬ 
nent, designed to last for a generation, or more, 
in which I enter a description of the farm at 
the time of occupancy, the amount of labor for 
each year, the annual produce, new buildings, 
improvements, &c. 
These three books will enable the farmer to 
see at a glance the cost and value of each crop, 
and his improvements; and he need no longer 
remain in the dark, not knowing which are 
profitable, or which result in loss. 
I hope that I have succeeded in explaining 
sufficiently this simple system, and that others 
will also make reports, until we may obtain a 
well-digested plan, adapted to the wants of all. 
T. S. Gold. 
Cream Hill , West Cornwall , CL, Jan» 17, 1854. 
Wc thank Mr. Gold for the above communi¬ 
cation. Keeping accounts is almost as neces¬ 
sary to the farmer as to the merchant. The 
plan adopted by Mr. G. is a very good one, but 
may be too minute for those entirely unskilled 
in book-keeping and little used to writing. When 
a mere boy on our father’s farm, we adopted a 
very simple plan, which was of practical use in 
managing the farm, and not only afforded amuse¬ 
ment for many an evening hour, but also gave 
us practice in the use of the pen, which has 
been of very great benefit to us since, as we 
thus learned to express our thoughts much bet¬ 
ter than wc could have done, had our first les¬ 
sons in this been a school exercise, in writing a 
formal “ composition.” 
We prepared our own books by stitching to¬ 
gether a number of sheets of folded foolscap. 
We first drew out a map of the farm with a pen, 
representing the fences by straight lines. Be¬ 
ginning at one corner, we gave each field a 
number, which was marked in the center, and 
we then followed the map with a description of 
each field. We give a few examples from our 
old note-book. 
No. 1. 10 acres—30 rods north and south, 52 
rods east and west—now in wheat; sown on 
summer-fallow twice plowed, Sept. 26th to 30th. 
One-third on eastern side treated with 8 loads 
per acre of compost of rotted wheat straw and 
cattle dung, plowed in at second plowing. 
Western two-third •; . f field not manured; soil, 
a reddish loam, resting on limestone rock, which 
in many places comes up to the surface; some¬ 
what stony ; this field was covered principally 
with oak trees, interspersed with some basswood, 
and some black walnut and wild cherry trees; 
it was cleared 13 years ago, and has been 
chiefly cultivated with wheat and clover, with 
one crop of corn, one of peas, and one of buck¬ 
wheat. 
No. 7. 15 acres—woodland. The chief timber 
is white and black oak, with some basswood, 
and in the southern part a considerable number 
of sugar-maples, &c. 
No. 12. 8 acres—meadow ; chiefly grass, tim¬ 
othy ; soil, a pretty stiff clay; chief growth of 
timber, beech; was cleared nine years since, 
sown with wheat and seeded down with timothy 
and clover, and has been mown every season ; 
the clover soon ran out, and the timothy occu¬ 
pied the entire ground; yield at present from 
one and a quarter to two and a half tons per 
acre, according to season. 
The above are actual copies from our records, 
and may serve as examples of the description of 
each field. 
Following these was a general description of 
the farm buildings, fences, and an inventory of 
the implements, grain, hay, straw, &c., on hand, 
and a list of the animals, with a descriptive 
name for each. As examples we copy: 
Nine horses. Two working spans, heaviest 
span Mike and John—Mike, black, 8 years old; 
John, dark brown, 7 years old. Lighter span, 
Kate and Pete—Kate, bay, 10 years old; Pete, 
bay, 11 years old. Young horses, four—one 3 
year old colt, Jim, black; two 2 year colts, Jake 
and Jim—Jake sorrel, Jim bay; one yearling 
colt, black, called Minny. 
Similar entries were made in reference to all 
other animals. The younger neat cattle, sheep, 
and fowls were described in classes, as the rams, 
breeding ewes, wethers, yearling lambs, &c. 
We well remember that our first inventory oc¬ 
cupied all our evenings for three weeks, and 
covered a dozen sheets, and that it required so 
much care that we did not need an index to tell 
us on what page might be found any field, ani¬ 
mal, &c., described. This exercise inducted us 
into the art of expressing our thoughts with a 
pen, before we dared to even write a letter to a 
friend. 
After thus laying out our work we com¬ 
menced a daily record of the transactions upon 
the farm which were written down at night just 
as they occurred during the day. We give one 
day’s record made several months later : 
June 18. Patrick hoed corn in eastern part 
of No. G. Morning, Father and I weighed out 
1625 lbs. of hay from barrack for Mr. J. Brown; 
price, at $15 per ton, $12 19—to be paid for 
next Monday. Simons and brother breaking up 
