Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-07-23
HERE Is FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

The following letter, received by The
Courier last Monday, contains in its few
lines abundant food for thought-care-
full, studious, calculating thought. We
hope that every business man who reads
it (and every farmer is, or ought to be, a
very practical business man) will study
its full meaning, draw from it the i'm
portant lesson it makes plain, and profit
by it. The letter is as foil >ws:
"Scneca, S. c., July 10th, 1902.
Editors Keowee Courier-Dear Sirs:
We want to tell you what one of our Gus
toners did this week. Mr.. II. j. Huff,
who lives near Fairview, came down and
paid off his guano note in old corn, for
which we gave him 81 per bushel. Now,
the point is this: lie not only pays cash
for his supplies, but has surplus of corn
and can spare enough to settle off his
accounts for guano used in cultivating
his crops this year, and when he gathers
his crops he won't owe dollar.
Very truly yours,
IN. w. Coleman ,S Co."
or how many Oconee county farmers
or South Carolina farmers for that mat
ter-can as much be said? Compare
tivcly few, indeed. If the men who ope-
rate the farms of this State would but
look at the business Of farming in a
business way, it would be the exception
rather than the rule for the farming
lands to be covered with mortgages and
the farm products to be pledged, long
before they are in existence, to secure
the guano bills. There is no business
that can be successfully carried on by
any one under a system so lax and care
less as that under which tho average
farm is conducted. How many farmers
know at the close of the year what their
expenses have been, what their receipts
have made beyond living? Could a
merchant, banker or manufacturer ope-
rate business upon a system that did
not show him at glance, at any time
during the year, just how ho standsP
No. Could the retail merchant keep his
footing if called upon to pay such credit
prices as the farmer pays year after year?
No. Is the merchant responsible for the
high credit price he puts on his goods?
BY no means. The honest and reliable
farmer who gets the merchant to run
him for year has to pay, not only the
interest on his own debt, but he has to
hcip pdy We principal and interest for
those ,cho neter p0y their accounts in fuU.
1t is this precautionary measure, made
necessary to tho merchant rs means of
self protection, that hurts and cats the
profits of the farmer who buys on
credit. Can this credit system be done
away with by the farmers? Most GER
tainly it can; but it will take time, and
self denial, and business methods to do
it. Let the farmer keep his accounts
before him, so that he can tell what he is
doing, and when he sells his products he
can know what they cost him and what
his profit is. An expense account, show
ing accurately whore the dollars and
cents go, will do more toward checking
the many Improbable and useless expen-
ditures of hard earned dollars than many
would imagine. Try it. Make tho SEEM
ingly extravagant expenditure of dol
lar or two in some good, substantial
account books; then keep your accounts
and study them in dead earnest, and
when the year has rolled by it will be
found that of all the expenditures made
the purchase Of the ledger has proved
the best-paying Of all.