Rural Science Reader (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...how skillful he is as a Mechanic, no matter how worthy and intelligent he is as a Citizen, poor judgment in business will result in failure and disappointment. A good Business Man keeps records of business transactions. Farmers should keep books. Our teacher, Miss Van Wyck, has asked me to explain the plan we follow in Cedar Creek School for keeping simple farm accounts. It is not at all a difficult plan. All the boys and girls in Grades 7 and 8 are carrying it out, and even a few in the lower classes write up some of the records. We all enjoy the work, for the folks at home are interested in it, and the teacher gives us credit for it as a part of our work in Arithmetic. I think it is good training too. It helps a person to be careful and businesslike. When the work commenced no person really thought of keeping accounts systematically. The plan grew out of exercises we had in our Rural Science work. In the lower grades the pupils keep "Nature Diaries" in which they tell all about the weather, birds, flowers, etc., and in the higher classes the records used to be of the work about the farm. One day Miss Van Wyck suggested that we might, if our parents did not object, write in accounts of business transactions too, and a few of us commenced to do this. The people in the district talked about it a good deal and seemed to think so well of the scheme that the trustees asked Miss Van Wyck to make it a regular part of the school work. The plans for the Fields Account and the Inventory became part of the scheme afterwards. At first they were simply practical exercises that we worked out for our Friday afternoon lessons in Agriculture. But they were seen to be such valuable records of the year's work on the farms that we put them in with...