The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-06-29

From the Ohio Farmer.
At an institute last winter, after
we had been discussing the matter
Of keeping accounts, a young farmer
came to me and asked me to tell him
just how we managed our account of
money taken in and paid out. He
was in dead earnest, as one could
see, and wanted to learn. Being in
a hurry then told him / would an
swer in The Farmer as soon as
could spare the time. To begin with,
/ use no day book or journal, such
as merchants have. do not need
anything but ledger for my ac-
counts. To save time all unneces-
sary work must be avoided. A book
ruled as ledger, say an inch thick,
was bought at a book store This
has, on both the DR.. and CIR. side of
the column, spaces ruled off in which
to write, seyerally, the month, day
of month, the article bought or sold
and the dollars and cents paid out
or taken in for it. There is one 9TH
er space ruled off for putting in the
page Of the day book or journal
from which the entry is made. AS
we make all entries directly in ledg-
er this space is not needed or used.
To start the account, write on the
first line, on the first side, the date
and the words leash on hand" fol-
lowed by the exact amount, to a
cent. If / sell, the next day, 40
bushels Of wheat at 90 cents bush
Ell, to Mr.. Allen, the miller, my en-
try would be, after the date, $40
wheat (Allen) $780," which is all
that is necessary to recall the trans
action to my mind, This, of course,
is written on the next line under the
"cash ON hand" So / go on putting
into this cclamn everything that I
sell for cash and all moneys receiv-
ed. In the same way l enter on the
other side everything that l buy and
pay money for, or any money that |
pay out for any purpose. This is
all there is of cash account. / en-
ter all checks that may be received,
money orders, etc, and treat them
as cash. At the end of week sup
pose ! add up the figures on each
side denoting the dollars and cents.
One side will show the total of all
money taken in, including what l
had on hand to start with. The
other side will show the total amount
paid out, and of course if one sub
tracts the latter from the former lie
will find just what should be in his
pocketbook. This is called by bus
mess men balancing the cash" Its
object is to make sure that no mis-
takes have been made. A man as
serted that he had sent me some
money, not long ago. l had no rec
objection of it and went to my cash
account. There was no entry of any
such money, and the account had
never been out of balance since the
time he said he sent it. That proved
conclusively that I had not received
the money; that is, to me at least,
and he had to pay it. Had my &C
count been even a little out Of bal
ance / could hot have been certain,
because there might have been mon
ey paid out and not entered which
came near balancing what this man
claimed to have paid me.
When ] balance the cash we sim
ply add up and put the totals be-
tween the lines with pencil They
are left there and l begin to add from
them next time. Kept in this way
the cash account is very simple
matter. The object is ordinary good
business management For one
thing | see no reason why man do
ing business on farm should not
be as business-like as if he was do
ing something in town. No man
can get the start of me on accounts,
for / know what | have bought and
what / paid for it, or whether paid
for it or not and when it was, and
then one who had never kept an ac-
count would be surprised to see how
many times in year some question
comes up that can be settled by
turning to the cash account. For
example: | painted my house and
barn year ago. When they need
painting again l can turn to the
cash account and find just how much
oil and venetian red to get for the
barn, and how many gallons of paint
for the house body, and for the trim
mings, and how much green for the
blinds. Last week painted our
four veranda floors. When they need
painting again how easy to turn to
the cash account and see that it took
one gallon of paint the last time, and
that No. 80 Of - paint was just
the color, dirt color exactly.
Last week / went to Cleveland and
bought three barrels of land plaster
(hunting up the best place to get it)
to use in my horse stable this sum
mer to keep it smelling sweet Next
year ! can turn to my book and
learn just to whom to write and send
my order, thus saving me $3.50 over
retail prices; pretty good pay for
writing a letter. Thus our cash ac-
count becomes valuable memoran-
dun account along with the rest.
One of my daughters keeps my cash
account this year. report all cash
transactions (hand her the bills
when ] get them to her and she finds
no trouble in keeping it straight. l
like this. 1t saves me some worry
and my wife and daughters know all
about our money affairs just as well
as / do; just what we can afford to
spend and how fast it is going. T
do not believe in keeping women in
ignorance of financial matters and
then blaming them if they are ex-
NJ