The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-25
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Farm Bookkeeping

To the Editor of The Age-Herald;
In your editorial columns of January 10
/ read a very valuable and pertinent
article on the subject of keeping books
for a farm
| | was talking yesterday with one OF
the brightest farmers in Alabama, and
asked him what his corn cost him to
| raise. He said very frankly, Il don't
know" So anxious to plant it, so care
ful to fertilize it and to plow it, watch
| ing the sun and clouds every day, and
then gathering it with a great deal of
| pleasure and pride, yet could not take
the time to put down every item of
| ma terial. labor, etc, chargeable against
it. | also met an eX-cowpuncher who
told me OF ranchman in Kansas whom
he had known and served few years
ago. The ranchman had about 10000 acres
of land worth $50 per acre, and he thought
he was making large profits His book
keeping consisted entirely of memoranda
made on envelopes, margins of newspa-
pers. manila wrapping paper, ON his cuffs,
on boards, shingles and chips and all
thrown into a dresser drawer. The great
er part of such data as he should have
kept on his records was kept in his head
and his head liable to be tenderly laid
away in a. coffin at any time without
notice. and really unable to speak a word.
After becoming alarmed over his cond-
tion and some debts which he had over
looked, and after tearing his hair and
beard all day and losing sleep all night,
his wife Zone of those little wheelhorses
in the marital harness that are occas-
sionally found), went to his rescue, stud
led bookkeeping, kept a record of every
detail of the farm, and now he writes
to his old cowpuncher that he knows ex-
actly where he stands at all times ana
is making money. OF course he's maxi
ing money! Any farmer who will let
the booze bottle alone watch every item
of expense and think, think, think! and
with beef, pork, mutton, goat and poul-
try high and costly enough to make shirt
studs and cuff buttons out Of can scarcely
| tail to make money
Farmers, as a rule. are exceedingly
SLOW to learn. They are suspicious some
| times even of the federal government and
at farm journals when the advice they
! give is based entirely upon tests made
over and over again, and upon notable
successes achieved by individual farmers
make phenomenal crop on large acre
age, and the United States department
or agriculture would send an expert to
see how he did it. In fact, the wide
awake farmer will learn the names and
| addresses of those who have succeeded
best In any particular crop and he will
go to see him and learn many things
that will be of value to him, saving him
from making perhaps fatal mistakes But
let him determine, first of all, that he
must keep books and keep them right.
They should be as full of careful detail
as the books of the Tennessee Coal. Iron
and Railroad company They should
show how every quarter of a day has
been spent by everybody the place
every day in the year, and all the time"
charged up against the various expense
accounts such as cotton expense, hay
expense, millet expense, cow and cattle
expense, live stock expense, potato ex-
pense. hog expense, onion expense, goat
expense, etc. He should keep maps and
charts and records showing in every de-
| tail: First. description of land originally
when he first acquired it; second, analysis
| of soil; third. how it, was broken up
| fourth, how fertilized; fifth. how cult
| waited: sixth, how harvested seventh, how
| marketed, when and where. and what it
| broughti eighth, the exact cost shown
per pound, per bushel. etc. and the per-
| centage of cost to selling price. Let him
| charge per cent on investment, If he
| a record of weather every day. These rec
| a reord of weather every day. These rec
| ords should all be permanent, so that
| they may be referred to at any time for
| 10 or SO years or more-and done faith
| fully every year. 1t pays always and
nothing pays better, although often looked
upon very foolishly by good business men
| as a dead expense.
If the men will not do 1t as thoroughly
| and carefully as | have outlined. hope
the women will kick them out of bed at
o'clock in the morning to enter up on
the cash book Stamps, .04.' or any other
tritling amount he might have forgotten.
This is the only way to prevent at the
years end, the old familiar question.
Where the d did the money go TOP"
II. M. MNUTT.
Birmingham, January 49, 1914.