Farmers as Book-keepers.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 73, 23 September 1896, Page 3

Farmers as Book-keepers.

The merchant who invests a sum of money in a particular business straightway opens a set of books, and the incoming and outgoing of every penny piece is carefully recorded, and a zealous eye is constantly kept on the balance. A man builds a factory and commences to manufacture goods. His books tell the full story of his receipts and expenses. But the avearge farmer keeps no books, he runs his business on the haphazard principle ; he sees that the ground is more or less cultivated, and trusts to Providence that things will pan out all right. He trusts he is making money ac wheat- growiog, and that bis cows and pigs are leaving a profit, but he could not swear that such is the case with regard to either. His sole financial guide is his banking account but to which department his balance or lowering it he knows comparatively little. There are exceptions to this rate, but in this way do the generality of farmers run their business. The merchant who should transact business after his fashion would expect to fail ; yet the careless farmer holds on the old way, and is mightily astonished when, at the end of a few years, be discovers that his capital has disappeared. He has done business in the dark, and is astounded when he runs into a stone wall, This sort of thing should be changed. A farmer should do business after business methods, just as other men do. In farming, as in any business, the man who pursues enlighfcened methods has a distinct advantage over one who labours in darkness and guesses at the result.