The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 31, 1917, Page 8

i g % | e ARz tnize S se Diary for Farm Accounts 0 0 = S S A % An Entry a Day Will Help the Farmer Learn How He Stands S BY HOMER DIXON HORT-cut methods are always being sought to save time and to get people to start prac- tices which are deemed ad- visable. When the farmer's interests total up into the thousands of dollars, and when farmers are buy-= ing and selling instead of trading for their necessities as is the case now, it is practically necessary for the farmer to keep a set of accounts. The system which has the least detail and still covers all of the essentials is probably the best. Along this line we notice Farmers’ Bulletin No. 782 entitled “The Use of a Diary for Farm Ac- counts.” There are two kinds of accounts which the farmers should keep, first, those in which he records items of financial nature, such as receipts and expenses and, second, records of farm work and préduction. In the latter he keeps account of dates of sowing, haying, harvesting, feeds fed to live- stock, etc. Where the business is not too large, the diary is quite a convenient form for Kkeeping this record. The bulletin states that ‘“the farm home and the farm business are intimately associated; the one is indeed the head- quarters of the other. A carefully kept diary embodies a chronicle of the af- fairs of both which is of permanent value, not only from a personal and sentimental standpoint, but alse as a continuous record of the farm bhusi- ness."” WRITTEN NOTES WILL SETTLE ALL DOUBT A successful New York farmer kept a diary from the time when he bhegan farming as a young man until he re- tired recently after 40 years of active farm work. In these diaries he has a record of all farm operations, the ma- chines used, the dates of planting and harvesting, the yields of crops, and daily notes on the weather. In the back of each diary is a financial ac- count of his farm business, giving the amounts of produce sold, with prices, a list of all expenses and a memo- randum of transactions with his neigh- bors. Aside from all the strictly busi- ness items, there are daily notes of personal interest, of plans and ambi- tions, and of neighborhood happenings, which in themselves make a valuable record. For years his farm neighbors have looked to him and his diaries to settle arguments as to the date when certain events happened in the com- munity. This is going to be a busy year. Most of the farmers have planted every available acre of ground which will mean that they will have to put in extra time taking care of it. For this reason a short cut on farm ac- counts is desirable. The diary seems to furnish this. It is going to be in- teresting and valuable to know in a year or so from now what some of our crops yielded and what they brought on the market and just how much we were able to make out of beef or dairy cattle fed on “war priced” feeds. - The diary adds this little feature which is left out in a regular bookkeeping sys- tem. If a diary could be started it would be found to carry a great ceal of interest with it. _ KEEP YOUR FARM UP TO THE MARK This is a year when, if ever, we should know what the farm is going to do for us. It is an unusual year, but nevertheless: a good year to measure up the farm’s efficiency. With a diary you can determine quite readily at the end of the year the number of crop acres per man, the value of the crops sold per acre, the number of crop acres worked per horse, value of animal products sold per acre, tke in- vestment in barns per crop acre, etc.’ ‘When you find these things out about your farm compare them with the rec- ords of other farms and see how the two compare. Or send to your state experiment station and get the aver- ages for communities which they have studied and compare your farm with - the average farm for a certain locality. If your farm is not up to par, should know it. There are different types of diaries, and although no diary is practical for a complete set of farm accounts of a large farm where extensive records are necessary, still it is far better than no you record at all. The best form seems to be the diary having a page for each day, containing space enough for notes and records of the farm work and a memorandum of financial transactions at the bottom of the page. This enables one to have a complete record 257 Thursday, Sept. 14, 1916 m Horse- i e | 2| | 2] B e (aef 18 F0e Kol cved 2 007 -.- > 2 00 sy o s (R Fita ot s, k| ) o e e o Bl R i ISR s 2. gz ( ocozz 7 /?ecwrtd R Cu?~ e | 2] | B Poct Bactvea . N e BEEEE e = BEREEE Sample page of diary suitable for keeping simple farm accounts. Note the divi- sion of each page between general notes and financial accounts. Old Records Smashed by Dairy Cows The high price of feed does not seem to affect world's records in the dairy world, as is witnessed by the an- nouncement of two new world’'s record Holsteins this past week and a Minne- sota champion Guernsey. K. K. S. V. Topsy, Holstein, takes the honors as a senior three-year-old, by producing 40.38 pounds of butter from a milk production of 568.7 pounds, her average test being 5.68 per .cent. She was sired by King Korndyke Sadie Vale 86215 and is out of King Segis De Sophie’s Bertha, a purebred Maine Jersey, has been giving record breaking milk production. A purebred cow eats no more than a scrub and the extra milk pro- duction is pure profit. Kol Korndyke Topsy 146246. Her best day's milk production was 87.5 pounds and her best day's fat over five pounds. The phenomenal part of it all is that she reached this production after hav- ing dropped twin bull calves. - These calves were sired by Topsy's sire. Topsy was fitted for the test with a ration composed of oil meal, corn meal, molasses meal and bran, with an oc- casional variation of ground oats in place of the bran. Four supervisors (Continued on page 11) This is a department of the Leader devoted to news, facts, information and opinjons of interest to farmers as farmers and as business men. of the day’s business on each page. In order to balance up the account prop- erly at the end of the year extra pages in the back of the book for the farm inventory and summary are necessary. It is very important that the rec- ‘ords be kept regularly. Don’t trust to your memory too long in this business or your accounts will not be accurate. Put down something every day, and make it specific enough so that each day’s record will not be too much like that of the other day’s record. Use a good permanent form of book, with pages large enough for plenty of ex- planation. Put your records down in ink, as pencil marks make a mussy book, and are not so permanent. FARMER SHOULD TAKE ANNUAL INVENTORY Investigations show that 40 per cent of the farmers keep some form of farm accounts. It seems that most of these only keep track of receipts and ex- penses, which are probably most im- portant. However, in order to get a fairly accurate account of the year’s business it is also necessary to take the inventory regularly each year. This consists of a-list of all of the real estate, livestock, feed and supplies, machinery and tools and cash on hand at a certain date, with values of each at that date attached. This can be kept in the back of the book. This inventory will show you the increase or decrease in value of livestock, ma- chinery, feed and supplies, etc., at the end of each year which can then be figured in with the profit or loss as the case may be. It also gives you an idea of your total investment at the beginning of the year so that you can determine what amount to charge in- terest upon for each year. The cash item, mentioned is not the tctal cash in the hands of the operator but the amount which the operator keeps on hand in order to run his business. Under this plan it is well to make a monthly statement or summary of each class of receipts and expenses. A’ separate page can be reserved for a record of the crop sales, another for the monthly record of livestock sales, and similar pages for the monthly totals of expenses. This will make it easier to total up the account at the end of the year. - The farm income is ‘determined by subtracting the total expenses from the total receipts, and giving the amount earned by the labor and in- vestment. It is necessary, however to subtract the interest on the investment from this amount to determine the ~farmer’s labor income. No matters of household expense should be connected with those of the farm. If it is desired to keep house- hold accounts they should be kept separately. It is estimated that two- thirds of the farmer'’s living is furnish= ed by the farm without the direct ex- penditure of money. This includes, of course, food, shelter, fuel, etc., and should be taken into account when considering the farm income. How- ever very few farmers keep these rece ords in their regular accounts. Because of the fact that it takes~ very little time each day to enter the hours and minutes spent in work on a certain crop, the diary is very well adapted to cost accounting on a few of the most important enterprises. Alopg with these records on work, should be kept those pertaining to fertilizers, seed, etc. It is not so much method in which the account is kept that is important but the fact that the account is kept at all. An account or record of this nature may at times save a good deal of money and no little trouble. GIVE PASTURE A CHANCE The plant uses its leaves for build- ing more plant. Without leaves the plant can not make normal growth. This is true of pasture crops as well as of other plants. ‘When pastured too close the pasture crops can not make much growth and hence do not produce much food. It weakens the plant too, 80 that it may not ‘make a normal growth the next year. Give the pasture . a chance to produce by not pasturing it too short—Agr. Ex. Dept. N. D, Agr. College. 2 5 e the particular et 2N Y