142 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
May. 
Farm Accounts. 
No person can become a thoroughly skilful and 
successful farmer who does not keep accurate ac¬ 
counts of all his farming operations, that he may 
know precisely the amount of profit or loss on each 
of his experiments, and consequently which to 
adopt in his future movements. It is true, he may 
by shrewd guessing and a keen memory, form some 
estimate of the most profitable crops ; but to com¬ 
prehend accurately at a glance, the precise amount 
of expenditure through all the multifarious ope¬ 
rations of a whole season, for even a single crop, 
would be almost as difficult as to undertake to 
decide, by means of the memory solely, the pro¬ 
fits of a bank or railroad, and to divide the pro¬ 
ceeds by guessing, among the stockholders. 
A most favorable period occurs at the present 
moment, at the opening of the spring work, for 
those who have hitherto neglected this guiding- 
index to success, for its thorough adoption. We 
have been lately favored with a glance at the re¬ 
gister of farming operations kept by Joseph Wat¬ 
son, of Clyde, N. Y., who, with a farm of only 
fifty acres, is well known to be one of the best cul¬ 
tivators in the state. We furnish a brief abstract, 
both as a good and simple form for such accounts, 
and for showing the large profits which may be 
derived from a small farm, when managed with 
skill and accuracy. It will be observed that this 
farm possesses none of the 'peculiar advantages of 
nearness to city markets, which some have, and 
of Avhich high profits have been reported, on ac¬ 
count of the sales of milk, vegetables, early fruit, 
&.C., often serving to make up wholly their supe¬ 
riority over ordinary specimens of management . 
At the beginning of his book is a map of the 
farm, with its subdivisions numbered, and the 
area of each designated. With each of these fields 
an account is opened, containing a double column 
for charges and credits, of which the following is 
a specimen:— 
Lot or field No. 10,—4 acres reclaimed marsh. Dr. Cr. 
1352. 
May 27—To 4 days plowing into ridges for corn,) 
being new. low, and wet,. ...j 
To 4^ days planting corn, potatoes, beans.) 
and carrots, 75c , ... f 
To corn seed, 60c; 4 bu. potatoes, . 
June 22—To 5 days hoeing. 621c.; 2 days with \ 
shovel plow, SI,.T.j 
July 8—To 1 day shovel plow, 4 days hoeing, . 
Oct. 14—To husking 230 bu. ears corn, various ) 
parts of days, 3c. per bushel,.f 
By 230 bu. ears of com, 25c,. 
Oct. 19—To digging potatoes 2 days.. 
By 68 bu. potatoes, 25c,. 
6 bu. carrots, 25c,.. 
“ 2£ bu beaus, $2 . 
To pulling and drawing-carrots and beans,) 
and threshing beans,.j 
To drawing 6 loads stalks, worth $2 per load,. 
Oct. 30—To drawing 6 loads pumpkins, worth ) 
$1 each,.. j 
Net profit for 4 acres, or'$17 per acre, 
Carried to balance account. 
4 
00 
3 
37 
3 
60 
5 
13 
3 
50 
6 
90 
57 
1 
50 
17 
j 
5 
50 
1 
50 
12 
] 
00 
6 
31 
00 
99 
68 
00 
99 
00 
09 
68 
More minuteness in designating the quantity of 
land devoted to the separate crops, and separating 
the amount of labor devoted to each, would make 
the record more valuable by showing the relative 
profits. The balance from each field is carried to 
the general balance account, which exhibits in a 
summary form, the profits of the whole farm. The 
following is the summary for 1852—and includes 
the report of the unsuccessful as well as the success- 
full operations; or in other words, is a faithful 
transcript of the whole yearly management •.— 
Dr. Am’t. Cr 
No 
acres. Exp. 
9;.. 
Dr. Bal. Cr. 
19 
15 
17 75 
87 6? 
•35|42 
16 
Lot No. 1—Oats, &c.,. l£ 
“ 2—Hoed crops uncT 
fruit,. 
“ 3 —Meadow & or¬ 
chard, . 
£i 4—Sheep pasture,, 
u 5—Wheat,. 
u 6—Corn and roots, 
“ 7—Meadow,. 
“ 8,9,11—Pasture & 
wood,.. 
Profit on stock,... 
“ 10—Corn, &c.,.4 
Poultry,... 
Sheep,... 
Swine,. • 
Farm implements, (paid for net 
ones)... 
Farm improvements, (tile drain 
ing, &c.,).. 
Family expenses,. . . 
Incidental expenses and taxes 
Balance carried down,.. 
Pro. 
66 
795 16 
Nett proceeds of 45 acres, above all expenditures,. 
795 
399 48 
It will be seen by the above account that the 
actual nett profits of each field, as they are usu¬ 
ally reported, (that is, without reckoning the fam¬ 
ily* expenses, farm improvements, taxes, 8cc.,) is 
nearly eight hundred dollars—a very large amount 
for a fifty acre farm—the correctness of which we 
do not doubt, as we have had an opportunity of 
examining personally the whole of the premises. 
Farmers who have not kept well arranged farm 
records, may procure a small quarto blank book 
for fifty cents or less, ruled as above; every right- 
hand page may be devoted to each field, or 
branch of farming; and the left hand facing page, 
to remarks. These remarks, made in season, 
while the subject is fresh in the farmer’s mind, 
will form an excellent memorandum book of op¬ 
erations for the next year, so that errors may be 
avoided and successful courses repeated, and in 
the course of a few years such a degree of expe¬ 
rience attained in balancing profits and losses, as 
shall enable any careful and industrious land- 
owner to reach the highest successful results. 
Sheep Killed by Dogs. 
We have been furnished, by W. D. Barnes, of 
Newburgh, a copy of a proposed law, to prevent 
the heavy losses which sheep-owners now occasion¬ 
ally suffer from the assaults of dogs. He says that 
a. prominent cause of the diminished number of 
sheep in the Eastern States, is the danger of their 
destruction by dogs—and that in the neighborhood 
of villages, keeping sheep without a shepherd in 
constant attendance, is accompanied with great 
risk. The evil is the more serious, from the fact 
that small flocks of sheep, in connection with other 
branches of agriculture, prove to be a most profit¬ 
able investment, but for this drawback. 
The proposed law, intended at present for Or¬ 
ange county only, but believed by our correspon¬ 
dent, to promise great usefulness in other parts of 
