Charlotte home and Democrat., 1882-07-14
Business Habits.

"There is probably not one farmer in
ten thousand" says an exchange, "who
keeps set of accounts from which he can
at any moment learn the cost of anything
he may have produced, or even the cost
of his real property. A very few farmers
who have been brought up to business
habits keep such accounts and are able to
tell how their affairs progress, what each
crop, each kind of stock, or each animal
has cost and what each produces Know
ing these points farmer can, to very
great extent, properly decide what crops
he will grow aud what kind of stock he
will keep. He will thus be able to apply
his labor and money where it will do the
most good. He can weed out his stock
and retain only such animals as may be
kept with profit. For the want of such
knowledge farmers continue, year after
year, to feed COWS that are unproftable,
and frequently sell for less than her value
one that is the best of the herd, because
she is not known to be any better than
the rest. Feed is also wasted upon i'll
bred stock, the keep of which costs three
or four times that of well-bred animals,
which, as have been proved by figures
that cannot be mistaken, pay a large
profit on their keeping. For want of
knowing what they cost, poor crops are
raised year by year at an actual loss, pro-
vided the farmers labor, at the rates cur
rent for common labor, were charged
against them. To learn that he has been
working for fifty cents a day during
number of years, while he has been pay
ing his help twice as much, would oper
the eyes of many a farmer who has ac-
tually been doing this, and it would con-
vince him that there is some value in
figures and book accounts. 1t is not gen
orally understood that man who raises
twenty bushels of corn per acre pays
twice as much for his blowing and harrow
ing, twice as much for labor, and twice as
great interest upon the cost of his farm as
a neighbor who raises forty bushels per
acre. Nor is it understood than when he
raises pig that makes one hundred and
fifty pounds of pork in year that his
pork costs him twice as much, or the corn
he feeds brings him bu, half as much as
that of his neighbor, whose pig weighs
three hundred pounds at a year old.
If all these things were clearly set
down in figures upon page in an account
book, and were studied, there would be
not only sudden awakening to the un-
mediate remedy would be sought. For
no person could resist evidence of this
kind if it were once brought plainly home
to him. If storekeepers, merchants, or
manufacturers kept no accounts they
could not possibly carry on their bust
ness, and it is only because the farmers
can still 90 Oh working in the dark and
throwing away opportunities of bettering
his condition and increasing his profits"
GEEsE.-The London News says: "Of
all poultry breeding the rearing OF the
goose in favorable situations is said to be
the least troublesome and the most profit
able. 1t it not surprising therefore, that
the trade has of late years been enor-
mously developed. They will live and TO
certain extent thrive on the coarsest of
grasses; though, of course, ii birds are
to be brought TO market in good condition
they must be treated to something more
than coarse grass. The fattening Of
geese has now become an established in
dustry in some parts of the country"
The goose is to the English table what
the turkey is to that of America. It is
bred in the northern parts of England and
kept in large flocks In the fall of the
year the farmers of Lancashire and York
shire buy them to turn upon the stubble
after the grain is harvested, where they
fatten rapidly. 1t is quite common in the
fall to see large flock of geese driven
like sheep along the roads from the breed
ing grounds where they have been raised
to the stubbles where they are to be fat
tened