to keep account of his earnings and spendings. Success is the aim of life, of every business, but our success in life will be much affected by the intelligent use of our means, and our well being will almost chiefly depend on our ability to supply all our reasonable wants. Wealth in general, or money, is the means of procuring and satisfying all our material wants, and we cannot be too careful in handling that powerful element.

It is true, wealth is a relative quantity, every man carries his own standard of wealth within himself. One might be satisfied with a few thousands of dollars, another's desires might exceed a million, but I persist that if we succeed by strict account and control to ascertain the sum of our wants, we shall certainly be better able to work for the attainment of that aim.

Another thing deserves mention here, and that is the fact that in our present age many men incline to live beyond their income. The form of society, fashion, the multiplicity of wants which civilization naturally carries in its train, and the tendency of well living to gratify all the longings of a refined and cultivated mind and taste, may be the reason of it. Now I pretend that if anything can possibly check this tendency it is the keeping of accounts. I declare it incompatible with common sense to have, every time we foot the pages of our book, those silent witnesses of dissipation stand out in bold relief, and not to think of remedy. And the thought once conceived, half the work is done; plans to amend the deficiency will suggest themselves, action will follow the thought, and, if anything, that might cure.

Returning to the relation of book-keeping to life, I desire only to say that it has the same relations to practical life as every other and all the other sciences and arts in the broad field of human knowledge and experience. That is, it will become important just in proportion as it is found to be useful. Let us take any of the sciences to illustrate this theorem, for instance, chemistry. When at first, in the dark ages of the Mahometan conquests, taken up scientifically, men grasped the discovered principles with the full ardor of enthusiasm; leaving behind them the demands of practical life, they strayed off into the realms of speculation. Science, principles and theories were all, their connection with practical life nothing. They rose up to those sublime heights of science, wrapped in mysteries and clouds, and removed from the view and comprehension of common people. Chemistry was a mere pure science then, but did it enjoy the universal esteem, was it thought of so much importance as now? No, and deservedly not. It was only when it stooped down to our wants, when it went out into the field with the farmer, when it entered the workshop of the mechanic, in one word, when chemistry came to live among us, that we conceived its importance, just in proportion as we found it useful.

To-day it has entered our households; the time is near when our ladies will not be satisfied with the common fact that when they put cream in the churn and move the handle up and down the result will be a lump of butter; they will inquire into the reason, and I hope that the solution of such questions will afford them not only satisfaction and pleasure, but also benefit them. It is only when we admit an art or a science into our very household, when we

grow perfectly acquainted with it, that we can avail ourselves of its aid and judge of its practical value.

I have recently been reading an Essay on Economy, of a French author, who, in speaking of Holland, says that the ladies of that country are the most economical, the most intelligent economists he ever met. He ascribes this to the fact that the Holland ladies are required to keep formal accounts of their domestic expenses and receipts. That they make out yearly statements, showing what was spent in every department of the household, and that they take a great deal of pride in the accuracy and correctness of those accounts, exhibiting fully the judicious use they made of their funds. He quotes, as a singular coincidence, that the Kingdom of Holland has scarcely any national debt, a singular exception to the heavily indebted European countries. It is a strange coincidence we must admit, but there is a connection between those two facts, nevertheless. The financial affairs of the Kingdom of Holland are simply a reproduction and the sum of all its domestic affairs; the sense of order and economy, inculcated by their mothers, carried their effect into public life just as sure as the reverse would have done.

We might inquire here, what is economy? Is it the saving, the hoarding of the almighty dollar? Is it the stingy and miserly self-denial of life's enjoyments for the sake of accumulating wealth? No; it is just as far from the one as it is from the other; just as far from the spendthrift as it is from the miser. It is the right use, the intelligent use, of money or wealth. How many, how very many, men will take a five dollar note and spend it uselessly, satisfying the desire of the moment, gratifying one passing thought, without thinking that that amount represents the weary toil of nearly a week's hard work of the average of men. For what is money but the conventional mark of men and women's work? Gold and silver have not the power to satisfy any of our desires or wants-in their form a mere matter-nor has their substitute, the paper currency. Men and women's work is the only value on the face of the world. Everything is esteemed and valued by the amount of work that its production cost. If a barrel of flour cost $15, it is because it takes just as much work to produce it as there is work in $15.

But in order to arrive at the intelligent use of money, of that product of our toil and work, into our intellectual faculties, we must control that use, must call ourselves to account for every part of it which we employ to satisfy our desires and pleasures.

As soon as we step out into life and business, the importance of well regulated accounts becomes at once more prominent. A merchant can never think of being without correct accounts and books; it is forced upon him by necessity; it becomes there the very next thing after the business itself. It would be useless to recommend it to them, they know and appreciate its value. And still there are many, full too many, instances of indifference, incompetency and negligence, even among those men; but there the results are so striking that there are comparatively few that would not do their best to fill the bill, for we know by experience that in nine cases out of ten we can trace every failure in business, every bankruptcy, to that very source, to the deficiency of accounts, to which we ascribe many a ruin in common life.

The farmer is a trader; after buying a farm he is a merchant. His success depends partly on what he grows, most on what he sells and how he sells. If producing is the first condition, the selling is certainly the second condition, and the conforming with the demands of the market just as important for him as for the merchant. What has been said of the merchant is equally true of the farmer; no intelligent management of his business is conceivable without full and correct accounts, because the information to be derived from them is just as indispensable to him as it is to the merchant.

Here we must insert a definition of book-keeping. In most of the textbooks we find the following: "Book-keeping is the science of recording business transactions." This definition I believe, leaves out the main requirement of book-keeping. Why, the mere recording of a transaction would not satisfy any business man; a schoolboy could write down everything that happens in some form of a record, but that still would not be book-keeping. I say we must be able, from our books, to learn at any time the whole state of our business. We must keep, always ready, our records in such a form that we may be able to condense them without much work into one statement, where we can encompass at one glance all our affairs, and also their results.

There it is where many make so strange mistakes, and waste their work in the mere form of recording. I have often been told by parties, "Why I did keep books, and I have taken a great deal of pains to have them full correct, but somehow they failed to satisfy me-they did not show what I wanted." Where was the mistake? That man had certainly recorded everything that he thought worth knowing, perhaps too much of it. Well, he succeeded admirably—his work was a record and nothing more.

It is always so in nature: we must be disappointed if we expect from given causes more than their natural effects. Cash-book, day-book, ledger. We are driven here to the conclusion that in framing a system of books, we must steadily keep the end in view; we must clearly and fully ascertain what we want our books to show, then give our records the necessary subdivision and bearing; we thus avoid disappointment.

The question suggests itself here, "What do we want our books to show?" We might condense the answer in five points.

1. What we have.

2. What is owing to us.

3. What we owe.

4. What we have gained or lost.

5. How much we have.

Here we must mention the two great divisions in the various systems of book-keeping-by single and double entry. They are just what their names imply. The first records record every transaction once, as I might say in answer to the question "Where is it?"

The second is a more complicated system, whose origin we can trace back as far as the twelfth century, and which is said to have been hit upon in Venice, Italy. Its chief characteristic is that a twofold entry is made of every transaction, as if it be in answer to the two questions, "Where did it come from, and where did it go to?" Of the above given five requirements of a

set of books, single entry will fill the first three conditions, the fourth it will answer indirectly. In order to have them all correctly answered we must keep books by double entry. As I have demonstrated to you that the closing of books, the producing of a statement of our business, is the chief aim of books, I present to you herewith the close of a set of books of single and double entry. [Demonstrated.]

In the balance-sheet and loss and gain account of the double entry closings I have indicated the account which I think must be necessarily represented in a farmer's books. And here the reason comes in why agricultural books, by the very nature of the business, are more complicated than the books of the common merchant. It is because the farmer is something more than the merchant; he is also a manufacturer, and he must therefore adopt in his accounts part of the system used in manufacturing establishments—that is, the balancing of the cost of material and labor against the produce, or else his account will leave him in the dark about wherefrom and how his gain comes to him from this or that department.

If the farmer wants to know, not to guess, how much a bushel of wheat costs him, and consequently how much he makes on it, he must do exactly the same way. If he thinks it desirable to know the produce of his orchard, he must keep account of that part of his farm. He is free to make his choice between the two systems, let him select whichever he sees fit, but abide by the results; but never accuse the art of its incompetency of fully tracing all the phases of business, if rightly used. I will also put in here the remark, that though the double entry system might seem complicated it does not require much more work. The work of recording will be the same; it is only the place to be carried to, and the way of systematizing, that is the differ

ence.

I am perfectly aware that I have not thrown all my remarks into the path of agricultural book-keeping and its form, but in taking you over the technical dry forms that have been devised, to intelligently discriminate between their merits and uses would have taken more time than I possibly could oecupy, and I am afraid would have tired out the larger part of my audience. I hope and wish that some future day I shall be permitted to put before you systematically the arrangement and development of a full set of farm books, also to give you a synopsis of the so-called tabular system, which is used in the administration of the larger estates of Middle Europe, and shall be ever eager and willing to confer my mite to the advancement of the agricultural interest of our country. For if we cast one searching glance into the future of this country, we can easily discern that agriculture and the industrial arts will be the great basis of its development and grandeur. We never shall be a warfaring nation of conquerors. The very nature of our institutions, the form of our government, will protect us from that disaster. We hardly ever will be a people of traders; our seacoast may, but the great inland stretch of 4,000 miles from east to west, will be the emporium of agriculture-of agriculture in such perfection as the world never beheld before.

This reminds me of a quotation, which is ascribed to Franklin, where he says, "There are three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is the

way as the Romans did of old, plunder the neighbors, and carry off what they have. This is robbery. The second is trade-but great profits in that direction naturally imply cheap buying and high selling, which has a tinge of cheating in it that we know by experience never proved beneficial to the character of a people. The third and the only honest way for a people to acquire wealth is agriculture and industry-we must grow and manufacture what we want, and so much more to exchange for the necessary products of other soils and climates."

America has indeed followed Franklin's opinion; she is under full headway to establish her grandeur on the broad honest basis of agriculture and industry.

To

ORCHARD FRUITS.

A LECTURE BY DR. E. 8. HULL, OF ALTON, ILL.

ORIGIN OF ORCHARD FRUITS.

grow orchard fruits you must have orchard trees, and to grow either or both successfully, requires a knowledge of the laws of vegetable growth. These laws are so complex as to require careful observation, much time and thought. It is not our purpose to enter into a full explanation of these laws, and yet reference to some of them will be necessary in order that we may know how to modify their effects on our trees and on our fruits.

All our trees bearing improved fruit have been brought to their present condition by reproduction from one or other of the wild or unimproved species to which they belong. If we carefully compare the wild or uncultivated tree with one of their descendants, we shall at once be struck with the change which has been effected. The wood, the leaves, the fruit, how changed! One is ready to ask, can it be possible that such large and luscious fruits as Howell or Beurre Bosc pears could have descended from the harsh fruits of the thorny trees indigenous to the European and Asiatic forests. The apple, too, which has been called the king of fruits, once existed only in thickets in the same countries with the pear, as a thorny, compact tree, whose fruit was small, and of a quality not better than the fruits of our native crabs. From these, and from similar beginnings, all our improved fruits were derived. This great change was produced in the simplest manner, viz: mainly by stimulating the growth. In this way an enlargement in the leaves, and a slight increase in the size of the wood cells, was effected. From trees thus wrought upon seeds sprang up; these in turn being subjected to similar treatment, in the next and succeeding generations were further removed from the wild type, until at length the small, compact and thorny branch has been turned to one much smoother and larger, the fruit of which is of the highest excellence.

How great the change is which has been effected, will best be understood when we state that among all the species of fruits which are now grown in our orchards, not one of them, when in their wild state, could at all compare in quality with our persimmon. But all this has not been done without to