St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-05-01
FARM ACCOUNTS.
A Simple System Of Book Keeping Whic
Every Farmer Should Adopt.

Livery 1Fm0f SnOUlu ADOPT.
1t is waste of time to advise farmers
to keep an itemized account with the
farm, the stock and the family, for not
one in a hundred will do it. Indeed, it
is hardly necessary that they should,
but some accounts ought to be kept,
and the hardest thing about them is
the forming of the habit of putting
down each days transactions. The
plan have settled on is first to keep a
cash account. In this 1 put down each
day what I actually pay out or receive.
l tried at first keeping both on one
page with double columns but soon
abandoned that, as l much prefer
separate page for each.
find it almost a necessity to run &C
counts to some extent at the store, as
we have farm produce to sell, but in
order that l may know how the ac-
counts stand, keep pass-book with
each merchant or grocer; nothing
bought of or sold to them goes on the
cash account till settlement day. /
settle with my blacksmith once quar-
ter. The only way to keep CASH
book that will balance is to carry a
pocket memorandum and pencil. and
put down at the moment all moneys
received or paid out. This is very little
trouble when once the habit is formed.
If you give your note, or sign 4 note
IS indorser- latter l advise
you not to do-make record of it with
ha dot of, f,,r nf "a
can be prepared 10 meet il. When you
open an account with a hired man place
at the head of the page memorandum
of the contract with him. In keeping
your cash account bear in mind that
blank books are cheap, and do not try
to condense a half dozen items into a
line, but write out each item i'm a plain
way, and then if at the end of the year
YOU want to know how much any one
item amounts to, you can in few
moments run over the account and
select the items.
I sometimes do this and make a
memorandum at the bottom Of the
page of the more important items OF
expense and income. For example.
suppose at the end of the year my ex-
pense page foots up 800 and | wish
to find out where the bulk of it has
been paid. run over the account and
classify under different heads the lead
ing items. such hired help, groceries,
store bills, shoe bills, taxes, ETC.,
and then under the foot of gross
expenses for the year enter: OF the
above farm labor costs $3.50; groceries.
S16O; dry goods, clothing, etc, 5000;
shoes, sos: blacksmith bills $47, and so
the leading items can be found out and
entered in a single evening and at
glance you are able to see where the
money has gone.
The same plan can be carried out
with the receipts. Suppose they foot
up $4,000, and on looking over you
find these items: Wheat sold, 5000;
hogs, 500; cattle, $500; fruit and gar
den truck, $500. You enter this and
glance shows what has furnished the
bulk of your income. 1t seems to me
this is simple and more likely to be &C
curate than to try and open separate
account with each department OF the
farm. / think that an average of five
minutes an evening will keep this ac-
count for the average farmer. and sim
gle evening at the end of the year will
enable him to classify it and make the
memorandum which will show the
main sources of income and expense.
1t will be an excellent plan to foot up
and balance the account at the end OF
each month, and if ut this time you
will make a memorandum of the prices
of grain and stock it will be valuable
to refer to in the future. In addition
to this the farmer ought once year to
take an account of stock, and L always
do this the day the assessor calls, and
copy it on a page of my account book
As we are obliged at THIS time to go
over all our property in detail and
make a list of il, it is but little trouble
to keep a copy of it and it is interest
ing to compare these from year to year:
In addition to this plan of accounts |
occasionally keep an account with the
crop of some particular field to ascer-
tain the cost of production. 1t is very
simple and requires but little time, and
Is a matter of great satisfaction to know
lust the cost per bushel of the product.
To do this it is necessary to put sep
crate valuation on each field. For ex-
ample, you pay $50 per acre for farm
of 100 acres. There may be field OF
thin broken land. and part of the
farm of rich level land. First put a
fair valuation on the buildings and the
few acres occupied by the garden, or
chard. barnyard, etc. Then value the
different fields so that the whole shall
foot up $4,000.
We will suppose field No. l., 20acres,
is valued at $50 per acre and you are
growing wheat crop; the account
would stand as follows: Field No. 1.
20 acres. value 81. 900; wheat crop, DR.:
Interest on capital, including taxes.
$40; ploughing. eleven days at $3.50,
$3.50; narrowing and rolling to pre-
pare seedbed. SIS; drilling, at 40 cents
per acre, IS: twenty-five bushels seed
at 81, $25; cutting and shocking, at
Sl.75 per acre. S35: drawing to barn,
three DAYS. 2 men and team, Sl2;
threshing. 400 bushels, at 5 cents, $50;
extra help and board. $3.50. Total,
1927. Field No. l, 90 acres. Cr.: BY
400 bushels wheat. at IS cents, $34O; by
"a tons straw, at 50 per ton. Y4S.
Total, $685.. Net profit, Sl61. Cost
per bushel of wheat, So cents, or, de-
Quoting the value of the straw, a cents.
In keeping an account with a wheat
crop usually balance the straw against
the cost of drawing the crop from the
field and threshing, as each 100 bushels
of wheat gives about six tons OF straw,
and even at the low price of % per ton
it will cover this expense. 1t is best IN
keeping such an accout to charge Q
regular price for each DAYS work with