Holden, Ind. June 18, 1910. $30.00 Mr. P. T. Mayhew. Please pay to Thomas Jackson thirty dollars and charge same to my account. F. R. Wilson. A DUE BILL The customary form of a due bill is: Durham, N. C. May 1, 1910. $10.00 Due George Smith ten dollars, payable in merchandise from my store. S. T. Long. CHAPTER VII WHO SHOULD KEEP ACCOUNTS To have any value, business accounts, whether of a great or a small concern, must be accurately kept. Every man and woman, having unsettled dealings with others, should keep some sort of book accounts. Storekeepers must keep accounts, and every farmer and mechanic, who would know just what he owns and what he has spent during the past month and year, should keep an exact account of every cent received and paid out. Lawyers and doctors know how to keep accounts, or if they do not they are neglecting their own side of their professional duties. Workers, skilled and unskilled, and even the hired girl who is paid by the month, should keep a record of the compensation received, and how the whole or the part has been expended. No woman can be called a really good housekeeper who does not know to a penny what has become of the money she has received for the upkeep of her establishment, whether she have a score of servants or does all her own work. In order to keep such accounts, as have just been indicated, it is not necessary to be a trained bookkeeper, or to know anything more about the art than a good common school education gives. Another word as to the farmer. I am not thinking in this connection of the old-time, deep-in-the-ruts farmer, who never learns and knows nothing to forget, but of that wide-awake producer who tries to keep up with the times. Not only should the farmer keep cash accounts, the form may be quite simple, but all his business affairs should be kept in the best possible trim. Personal agreements without some kind of writing to back them up, are dangerous. Verbal contracts feed the lawyers. All transactions involving labor or money should be recorded in black and white. Don't trust to your memory. Don't rely on the memory of another. AN ACCOUNT WITH CROPS Every farmer should keep an account with each crop he raises and even with every field he cultivates. Against the farm should be charged-- 1. Its annual rental value. 2. What all the labor would cost if hired. 3. New machinery. 4. Wear, tear and repair of old machinery. 5. Taxes. 6. Insurance. 7. Doctor's bills. 8. Interest on mortgage if any. 9. The cost of fodder, fuel, etc., consumed. The farm should be credited with-- 1. The rent. 2. The cost of everything produced and consumed on place. 3. The farm products sold. 4. The stock sold. 5. Increased value of stock. 6. Increased value of property, if any.