Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1889-05-02

This is a question that Is being very
often asked but seldom answered to the
entire satisfaction of the inquirer.
Farming pays or fails to pay according
to the amount of skill, industry, and
prudence of the operator. OF course
no small business can yield as large a
gross income as one in which large in
vestments are judiciously made, yet
small business may pay q larger per
cent of profits for the amount OF capt.
tai invested than a larger business.
The reason why the question so Oft
en- asked, Does farming pay? is not
more satisfactorily answered is, we be-
lieve, because those engaged in farm
ing do not as rule keep any sort of
an account with their business that will
enable them to show beyond dispute
whether their business is paying or
not, or if paying at all, how much it is
paying.
If the Farmer could by any means
induce all farm owners to begin sys-
TEN Of accounts with their farms the
present season, and carry such accounts
through the year in an Ineligible
manner, so that the question so many
are asking could be definitely settled
so far as each individual case is con-
Cerned, it would have accomplished
most commendable work. Almost
every spring for the past ten or fifteen
years, the Farmer has urged the i'm
portance of this work, yet so far as we
can learn, but very few comparatively
of the farmers have formed the habit
Of keeping book accounts with their
| business. Many neglect the undertake
ing because they consider it difficult
| thing to do. But it is "a very simple
matter indeed to take an annual &C
count OF stock on hand and to record
the income and cash expenses as they
occur from day to day through the
year. No expensive set of books are
needed, nor any complicated system Of
double entry. We would only ask each
farmer to put in black and white what
he would like to carry in his mind
were it possible to carry it.
1t is no indication that farm does
not pay because the farmer uses up
the income of the land in the support
of his family. Neither mill operatives
nor mill owners are sure to have a
surplus left at the end of their year Of
toll and anxiety, yet because of this it
will not do TO say that running a mill
or working in a mill does not pay.
Farming certainly pays, but few of us
can show by our books how much it
pays us. Let the first of April see the
beginning of an attempt TO knoW ex-
actly, or at least approximately, how
much our farms and farm operations
are actually worth to US.
We believe that great many farm
ers and farmers wives would be better
satisfied with their vocation if they
could know for a certainty just what
income the farm is bringing into the
family, that they might the better com
pare their situation with others en-,
gagged in other pursuits. When the
farmer gives his farm credit for house
rent, fuel, carriage hire, all kinds O
food such as meat, poultry, eggs, milk
butter, fruits, grains and vegetables
consumed or given away TO friends
and takes account of all the days o.
parts of days when he is not actual,
engaged in productive labor, he woul,
find that it would require a highe
salary to carry him through the yea
than he had calculated. Do not again
call farming poor business till you ca,
show by accurately kept books jus
how poorly it has been with you
Practical Farmer.