St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-02-02

| anything ABOUT pencl1.
But does it follow that because of our
| earlier experiences taught us that the
| pencil is not in itself good farming i'm
| plement, it cannot be made very good
| thing to have and use on FARM
Some years ago Il am stating fact,
| at farmers meeting in Minnesota, be-
| fore the farmers's institute work was
| commenced, one of the members of the
state agricultural sOciety-then of the
| audience-a man gray with years of ex-
| perience as farmer, was asked these
questions: How many quarts of milk
| will your herd of cows average this sea-
son through? How many pounds of
Lutter do you make from given num-
Der of quarts? How much hay and
ground feed do you use, and how much
does it cost to take care of dairy COWS
through the winter? And finally, does
dairying pay? Every question, except
the last one, was answered by, IL really
don't know, exactly" And the latter
one by. quite emphatically, too, Ser
tainIy it does, because l am a richer
man to-day than when commenced
years ago."
Now the fact was, this farmer was en-
gagged in both wheat and stock raising.
Every year he had grain, beef, pork and
poultry, as well as milk and butter to
sell. Out of them all
HE MADE MONEY,
but he kept no account of what each
branch of his business cost, and he
could not tell what particular branch OF
it was profitable, nor which, if any. was
carried on at loss, which had to be
made good by the profit from one or
more OF the others; Now do you not
think that if he had useu a pencil he
Unnld have hpan still battpr offO
In wheat farming some men think the
use of the pencil is not essential. Per-
hapS not if the wheat raiser is satisfied
to accept results as they come, simply
paying bills and pocketing profits, if
any; but if he wants to know whas
things cost, to know all items of Outg0
and income, to find out where he can
reduce expenses, he must do as any one
does who is carrying on business in~
telligenty-by using the pencil dill
gently. The manufacturer keeps an
account of every dollar. He knows the
cost of every tool; the cost of repairs;
whether it will pay to repair or replace
that which is worn; the cost Of every
hours labor on the different parts Of
the machines he is making; of every
kind of material used; expense of mar
keting his goods. In brief, he knows
the detail or his business in every par
ticular.
HIS PENCIL IS HIS TEACHER.
Without it he would never know
whether he was ION foot or on horse
back" The farmer needs the help Of
this kind of teacher as we'll as the man.
ufacturer. With it he can know how
many days labor it, takes to put in
a given area of wheat or small grain, to
cut and bind, to thresh, to Stubble plow,i
to deliver his crop to the elevator or car
He knows at the end of the season how
many idle days from rain, from break
downs and other causes lin which hired
men eat but do not work., the loss of
time for going to and fro for extras and
repairs--all adding to the expense ac-
count without any returns, and when
summed up will explain the reason Of
my crop not paying very well this
year."
If engaged in general farming, having
more or less stock, for which he has to
raise forage crops, he should know
how much his hay costs per ton OF per
load, the cost per acre of his corn fOd-
der. of his vegetables, of the grain he
feeds, the labor in taking care of his
stock, repairs of his buildings, the in
crease of live weight of his animals.
whether making or losing money, and
right where the profit or loss is. This
knowledge cannot be obtained without,
keeping close and
ACCURATE RECORD OF ACCOUNTS.
No one, | think, will dispute the as
sertion that without the pencil as
helper no farmer can have an intelli-
gent idea of what should be the results
of his investments of capital and labor.
and without this knowledge can not in
one sense be other than an ignorant far
mer. And an ignorant farmer can not
hope to become successful one.
l also hold that in what may be called
little things on farm, the use of the
the main things of daily work. For
homely illustration: A catch to the gate
in the hog lot is off, panel of the gar
den fence is down, the hinges of the
door to the box stall where the bull
is kept are loose, the harness
belonging to the sorreQ team
needs stitching, the ash-pan to
the engine is warped so that hot Goals
will blow out, the pipe to the kitchen
chimney has new joint. Little things
like these catch our eye every day.
"All right" says the O-pencil-fOr-me-
farmer, Il can remember and will have
them attended to right away" His
attention is called to something
from his wife to come at once
and fix the churn she told him
about three or four days ago, the call
coming in such tone that it knocks
for the present all other thoughts out
of his mind as he haStens to obey. Any
how he fOrgets the little items of re-
pairs that should be attended to until
some morning, just as he is usually en-
gagged in same important matter he
hears wild cry from one of his young
hopefuls: Hi, dad, the hogs are in tha
garden
RAISING THUNDER;
Bill and have had more fun than
circus trying to chase the blamed things
out. Our green peas are all chewed up;
if you don't come and help us we WON'T
have ''dern thing left" Or out walks
old Brigham, primed for walk
around, and catching glimpse Of
his favorite in the pasture fields, away
he goes, head down and tail up,
crashing through the garden. carrying
diSmay to the boys, and adding to the
confusion of the bewildered pigs, in
tent only, regardless of consequences.
on joining the partner of his joys. Or
word comes that the sorrel team has
broken its harness, ran away, smashed
the new wagon all to smither-
Gems, or perhaps still worse, ne
finds his stacks or his house on
fire-all because he did not use
pencil in jOtting down these things
that should be attended to. DO l ex-
aggerate the possibilities of results of
neglect caused by forgetfulness by not
having memoranda to refer to?
The speaker closed by stating that by
proper use of the pencil we may yet Sc
cure enough of the ''sordid" to get there
palace cars and all.
1t Strikes One Often and Truly
Atlanta Constitution.
Pittman is a carpenter with head
quarters on Hunter street, near the