FORTHCOMING SHOWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1461, 15 November 1879, Page 4

FORTHCOMING SHOWS.

November 18th.— Aahburton Agricultural and Pastoral

Association's Annual Show. November 21), 21.— North Otago Agricultural and Pas-

toral Association's Annual Show. Entries close

on November 4th. November 20— Tap»uul Agricultural and Pastoral Society's Annual Show. November 27, 28— Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association, Forbury Park, Dunedin. Friday, Novemoer 21so -Clutha Agricultural and Pastoral Associations Annual Show. December 4th— Mataura Pastoral and Agricultural Socsety'a Annual Show, at Wyndham. December 6 —Spring Show of North Otago Horticultural Society, Oamaru.' December 11th.— Tokomairiro Stock Show, Tokomirlro Friday, 19th December— Waikouaiti and Shag Nalley Agricultural and Pastoral Society's Annual Show December 26th.— Taieri Agricultural Society's Annual

Show. January 9, 1880— Blueskin Agricultural and Pastoral

Association Annual Show. Early in January.— Olutha Horticultural Society Show, Balclutha.

Secretaries are requested to furnish the information necessary to keep the above Use an authentic record.

It ia well known that farmers in general are very careless in their system of book keeping, the majority of them having nothing to guide them in their receipts and payments except their bank-books ; this ia far from satisfactory, and such a state of matters ought not to exist amongst our farmers. The business of a farmer involves as much capital as that of most tradesmen, and is as intricate and complex as that of the great majority of merchants and manufacturers, and it therefore as urgently demands a system of minute, comprehensive, and daily accounts. The necessity of bookkeeping is so universally felt in all other employments involving the use of capital, that any manufacturer, or merchant, or shopkeeper, is utterly astounded when told, for the first time, that it is felt very meagerly throughout an enormous amount of farming, and scarcely felt at all throughout much. All farmers acknowledge, in words, the desirableness of accounts, and almost all profess to keep accounts, and to possess a fair knowledge of their pecuniary affairs ; but most, or at least many, content themselves with mere outlines of memoranda ; and not a few have really no knowledge whatever of the profit or loss of any of the vast majority of matters which bulk together to constitute their pecuniary condition. Some farmers, it is true, keep their books as , strictly as any merchant or banker, but with the generality, of farmers the case is widely different. It rarely happens that books are kept by them in a minute and, regular manner ; and the accounts of

a farmer occupying even a large estate^ and consequently employing a great capital, are seldom deemed of sufficient importance to merit a share of attention equal to that bestowed by a tradesman on a concern of not one twentieth part of the value. Mere general knowledge of the pecuniary condition of a farm, or a knowledge of gross yearly profit or loss in each of its principal departments, is of no value to point out the proper quarter of change, abandonment, retrenchment, increase, or new experiment ; nor can it direct the attention to the precise points which bring profit to tho3e which occasion loss, or afford information as to the several degrees in which profit and loss occur ; While memoranda respecting some crops, or manures, or other particular matters, unaccompanied by accounts of many accessory or incidental costs which affect them, are fitted quite as much to mislead the judgment as to guide it. "If a farmer knows not the degree and amount of his profit or loss on every article, and by every field, it is impossible he should possess a due experience of the past, or be able to make it a guide for the future." Every common farmer guesses at these particulars, and acts accordingly, which shows his idea of the utility of the knowledge. What is experience but knowing that certain causes have been attended with such and such effects ? But what is the knowledge of effects where a thousand are all jumbled into one account, with nothing but random guesses to form distinctions ? Various fields of grain are managed in a very different manner. Is it not of consequence to the farmer to know exactly the product, the expense, and the ' net profit on each ? Is he not thereby a better judge of the merit of each method he uses? And will he not be able to manage future crops with more experience than if he had gained none of this knowledge 1 From keeping such accounts, he will be able to make comparisons between different fields and modes of culture, and be enabled to judge which will probably in future pay him best. The same applies to grass lands and other products of all kinds, and with every Bort of cattle. Which pays the farmer best ? This is a point of no slight importance, for the difference may be very great. But is it to be known from that general account which every man carries in his head, which is nothing more than an idea 1 What accuracy can there be in accounts so kept ? The farmer buys two different breeds of cattle ; they are both fed ; which answers best, and to what degree ? Even this question can be resolved with no degree of certainty without a regular account being kept of each. When a man turns over his books and finds a regular balance of profit and loss on every article, he is enabled to review his business, to consider what have probably been his errors, and wherein he has been most successful. The result of such reflections is true experience, not the random notions that are carried in the memory. After some years of farming, upon looking over his accounts, the farmer finds" that growing oats has in general paid him very indifferently, and that on the contrary wheat and barley have yielded him a good profit. Upon auch a review he finds that keeping dairy cows pays him far better than fattening cattle ; that his ewes and lambs are much more profitable than wethers ; or he discovers which has been the best and cheapest system of cultivating his fields, and which has been the most favourable season to sow different seeds. This knowledge is beyond all doubt the most valuable part of experience, and can in no way be gained but through the medium of regular accounts, for in what manner can such a review of one's business be' otherwise made % Will anyone be so absurd as to assert all or any part accurately can be carried from year to year for four, five, Bix, or seven years in the head, and founded originally on nought but conjecture 1 Nor should fugitive notes and memoranda be called accounts. " Nothing can effect this great end but a ledger regularly kept. It is by this means that a man may, if he please, gain more experience in five years than an ordinary farmer can in 20, as the the knowledge he thus acquires in a few years balances in a good measure all the superiorities of the latter. In this light surely accounts may be said to be the foundation of successful farming, and it is highly possible that by a proper system of book-keeping a bad farmer may be converted into a good one. One thing is painfully evident — viz., that our farmers are grossly negligent in the matter, a majority not being able to give anything like a correct idea as to what crop or stock in any particular year or field paid them best, and many could not give you an approximate value of their farms and stock. No doubt there are some amongat them who cannot keep books ; but the greatest number of our farmers have not that ex« cuse, as they are men of considerable education, and many possessing a superior education are most careless in this important matter.