The sea coast echo., 1903-11-07

Svrors pay?" The question 10
very old one and suppose
riu continue for some time to be
asked. My answer has always peen
the same: ayes, but 1t must be re-
membered that farming, as business.
is subject to the same general primer.
pies which govern any other business.
II a man were to start cotton mn
and keep no account Of receipts anu
disbursements, take no care OF ms ina-
chincry, and keep no lookout on 'ne
market, how long could he continue IN
business or what bank or indiyiduai
would think for moment OF advanc-
ing him credit to carry on MS enter
prlse2 And yet the same necessity Ior
exact business methods exists In aSri-
culture as in manufacturing.
But" says some one land. III iact'
heard this same argument only
few days ago), "a cotton mill is a Dig
affair and farm d comparatively
small one; and the exact mcthods ol
the one are not necessary In the con-
duct of the otheri' Unquestionally the
| farm is usually--though by no means
necessarily--a smaller AFFAIR. put
business conducted without system
must of necessity be small.
I have purposely used the COTTON
mill as an illustration because, thousn
| great fortunes have been buiit up py
II the making of cotton cloth IS not
In itself, very profitable industry.
There Is larger percentage OF prom.
on many agricultural operations, ana
tho comparison OF the two industries
illustrates the old truism that bad
business well managed will pay where
good business poorly manaBtu WIZ
not.
II is true that the number OF DUST
ness failures among farmers Is eh-
sremely small MS compared with otner
closses fact that many agricultural
Journals dwell upon with insistence'
Rut why are these failures 80 lnrre-
ouent? Simply because with very
lorge proportion of farmers, agriculture
| is not a business at all, but oniy u
| means of subsistence, which is very
i different thing. A man who mas no
i business cannot fail In 1t. But though
farmers may not often be driven nto m
i bankruptcy. they sustain losses from
\ nag,oct @r business methods when
they little suspect. 80 ,
II An illustration Of this, wnicn
think In worth giving, recently came
q to my notice. .oe
!, An acquaintance Of mine had lo-
- cows on his dairy farm. The farm wsi
e NOT having. and he asked me II couie
~ and where the trouble lay and pom
n out remedy. After q carefui exam
= ,notlon of his farm and equipment
. fold him doubted II all his cows wer'
IN paying him profit.
10 He was surprised and said ina
Of though the cows varied In qnality the.
"a were all good cows. The test, now
- ever. which consisted in milking eacl
10 COW separately until her milking auail
n. ties were fully ascertained, disciose'
he the fact that eleven out Of the l02 wer
al beiny kept at loss, while several otl
,,c ers were barely self.supportingl
ed The wedding out of these worthless
be animals made 1t possible to dispsns
is with the services Of one oil the iar'
1T hands. and further test proved ti'u
n the cows would give just as mu''
hesxllk and keep in better health on
- s1erably less expensive ration
od consics. :" swner should have know
co. thing their On
an long before. H~ the farmer {
lar The advantage foS,saa at, in eac
to knowing just where he YgsssAe has
we and every department that hSs sssshlei
err hand would seem to be 30 self-eviSs |.
Ife as to be beyond the realm Of discu;
sion. But don't need to keep books,
said q country neighbor Of mine; "
have q good livin' and I'm sure O. tina
*. much; then If have say, $500 to tn
,st good at the end O. the year. / don
or. need any book but my bank to sho,
I'LL me I've got it-and there's my prof
nm see?"
I'll No. didn't see, and I asked him d
of what figure he estimated the cost o
err. bis living. He had very vague ideas o
ro. this subject, and was surprised whe
told him that he ought to know. an
that the figure should be added to hi
$500. said supposed he at leas
knew what he paid out during the yea
for groceries, -four and household SUI
plies. But no, he didn't know eve
that. Further talk disclosed the fac
that he never disbursed any cash fo
these luxurles. but "callated" for hi
hens to pay the store bill, always trat
;no euUo For. e,rnoa,,iac
"Then You don't know how much [
credit your hens with?o No. he didn'
But the critters done all he required q