COMMON SENSE FARMING
1. Wealth, Land and Labor. 2. Money. 3. Sources of Wealth. 4. The
Farmer, a Producer, and Seller. 5. Business Methods Essential.
CHAPTER II
DOCUMENTS YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND
1. Deeds. 2. Abstracts of Title. 3. Parties to a deed.
4. Different deeds. 5. Making a deed. 6. Recording deeds.
CHAPTER III
FORMS OF DEEDS AND MORTGAGES
1. Trust deeds. 2. As to mortgages. 3. Mortgage forms.
4. Payments. 5. Assignments. 6. Redemption of mortgages. 7. Equity
of redemption.
CHAPTER IV
WILLS
1. Two kinds. 2. Limitations of wills. 3. How to make a will.
4. On executive duties. 5. Administrators. 6. Debts. 7. Final
settlement.
CHAPTER V
LETTER WRITING
1. Business letters. 2. The heading. 3. Forms. 4. The greeting. 5.
Body of letter. 6. Ending a letter. 7. Materials. 8. Letters of
introduction, etc.
CHAPTER VI
BILLS, RECEIPTS AND ACCOUNTS
1. Bills for goods. 2. Bills for labor. 3. Discounting bills.
4. Forms of receipts. 5. What is an order?
CHAPTER VII
WHO SHOULD KEEP ACCOUNTS?
1. An account with crops. 2. Workingman's account. 3. Other
records. 4. Copies.
CHAPTER VIII
AS TO BANKS
1. National banks. 2. Banks as lenders. 3. Interest on deposits.
4. Check and deposit banks. 5. How to draw a check.
6. Certificates of deposit. 7. Use of checks.
CHAPTER IX
SAVINGS BANKS
1. How business is conducted. 2. How to deposit. 3. How account
grows. 4. Limit of deposit. 5. How to draw money. 6. Savings bank
revenues.
CHAPTER X
NOTES--DRAFTS
1. Definition and illustration. 2. Days of grace. 3. Indorsing
notes. 4. Negotiable notes. 5. Joint notes. 6. Discounting notes.
7. Interest on notes. 8. Protests. 9. Notices. 10. Accommodations.
11. Lost notes. 12. Notes about notes.
CHAPTER XI
A DRAFT
1. To make a draft. 2. Forms. 3. For collection. 4. Dishonor.
5. Protests. 6. Buying drafts. 7. A good plan. 8. Good as cash.
CHAPTER XII
JUST MONEY
1. What is money? 2. United States money. 3. Metal money. 4. Paper
money. 5. Bank notes. 6. "Greenbacks." 7. Treasury certificates.
8. Worn-out notes.
CHAPTER XIII
OUR POSTAL BUSINESS
1. The department. 2. Rural free delivery. 3. Classified mail
matter. 4. Postal rules. 5. Foreign rates. 6. Stamps. 7. Postal
cards. 8. Registering letters. 9. Special delivery. 10. Money
orders. 11. Cashing P.O. orders. 12. Advice.
CHAPTER XIV
TELEGRAMS--THE TELEPHONE
1. Description. 2. Directions. 3. Charges. 4. Telegraphing money.
5. The method. 6. The telephone.
CHAPTER XV
BUSINESS BY EXPRESS
1. Two kinds. 2. Instructions. 3. The company's duty.
4. Collections by express. 5. C. 0. D. by express. 6. Money by
express. 7. Money orders.
CHAPTER XVI
ABOUT RAILROADS
1. Bills of lading. 2. Express bills. 3. A bill and a draft.
4. Some forms.
CHAPTER XVII
TAXES
1. Definition. 2. Kinds of taxes. 3. Customs duty. 4. Internal
revenue. 5. Stamps. 6. State taxes. 7. Exempt from taxes.
8. Insufficient taxes. 9. Personal property. 10. Town taxes.
11. Payments. 12. Corporation taxes. 13. Taxes in general. 13. The
returns.
CHAPTER XVIII
CONTRACTS--LEASES--GUARANTEES
1. Requisites to a contract. 2. The consideration. 3. Written and
verbal contracts. 4. Forms of contract. 5. Kinds of contract. 6. A
lease. 7. As to repairs. 8. Sub-letting. 9. What is a guaranty?
10. A bill of sale 11. Obligations.
CHAPTER XIX
LIFE INSURANCE
1. A definition. 2. How it is done. 3. As an investment. 4. Forms
of life insurance. 5. Mutual insurance. 6. Amount of policies.
7. Policies as security. 8. Lapses. 9. Proprietary companies.
CHAPTER XX
INSURANCE--FIRE--ACCIDENT
1. Like a gambling risk. 2. What is fire insurance? 3. Premiums.
4. Collecting. 5. Insurable property. 6. Mutual companies.
7. Stock companies. 8. Accident insurance.
CHAPTER XXI
PARTNERSHIPS
1. Defined. 2. Prepare and sign. 3. Silent partners. 4. Nominal
partners. 5. Liability. 6. How to dissolve. 7. Notice necessary.
8. A form.
CHAPTER XXII
INVESTMENTS
1. What is an investment? 2. Savings. 3. Capitalists.
4. Stockholders. 5. Kinds of stocks.
CHAPTER XXIII
BONDS AS INVESTMENTS
1. As to bonds. 2. Sorts of bonds. 3. Railroad bonds. 4. Buying
bonds. 5. Requisite in a bond.
CHAPTER XXIV
THINGS TO REMEMBER
1. Don't deceive yourself. 2. Be sure you are not losing.
3. Weeding out old stock. 4. Dropping worthless accounts. 5. Let
your wife know. 6. Children and business. 7. Farmers' sons.
CHAPTER XXV
WORTH KNOWING
1. How title is acquired. 2. Over-generosity. 3. Care of wills.
4. Care of all papers. 5. Checks and stubs. 6. Sending away money.
7. Lost in mails. 8. More about notes.
CHAPTER XXVI
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
1. As to receipts. 2. Notes in bank. 3. Well to know.
4. Discharging liens. 5. Prompt but not too prompt. 6. Be in no
haste to invest. 7. Meet dues promptly. 8. Counting money.
9. Ready money. 10. In traveling.
CHAPTER XXVII
CONTRACTIONS AND SIGNS
1. An alphabetical arrangement.
CHAPTER XXVIII
WORDS AND PHRASES USED
1. Defined and alphabetically arranged.
INTRODUCTION
What is a good business man? "The rich man," you may answer. No,
the good business man is the man who knows business.
Are you a good business man?
"Up to the average," you say.
Well, what do you know of business laws and rules, outside your
present circle of routine work?
Now, this handy little volume is a condensation of the rules and
the laws which every man, from the day laborer to the banker,
should be familiar with.
We have not put in everything about business, for that would
require a library, instead of a book that can be read in a short
day, and be consulted for its special information at any time.
It isn't a question of the price of the book to you, or of the
profit to the publisher. Is it good?
Many a man has failed because he did not know the rules and laws
herein given.
Never a man has won honestly who did not carry out these rules and
laws.
CHAPTER I
COMMON SENSE FARMING
The three things essential to all wealth production are land,
labor, and capital.
"The dry land" was created before there appeared the man, the
laborer, to work it. With his bare hands the worker could have
done nothing with the land either as a grazer, a farmer or a
miner. From the very first he needed capital, that is, the tools
to work the land.
The first tool may have been a pole, one end hardened in the fire,
or a combined hoe and axe, made by fastening with wythes, a
suitable stone to the end of a stick; but no matter the kind of
tool, or the means of producing it, it represented capital, and
the man who owned this tool was a capitalist as compared with the
man without any such appliance.
From the land, with the aid of labor and capital, comes wealth,
which in a broad way may be defined as something having an
exchangeable value.
Before the appearance of money all wealth changed hands through
barter. The wealth in the world to-day is immeasurably greater
than all the money in it. The business of the world, particularly
between nations, is still carried on through exchange, the
balances being settled by money.
Money is a medium of exchange, and should not be confounded with
wealth or capital; the latter is that form of wealth which is used
with labor in all production.
Broadly speaking, wealth is of two kinds, dormant and active. The
former awaits the development of labor and capital, the latter is
the product of both.
Labor is human effort, in any form, used for the production of
wealth. It is of two kinds--skilled and unskilled. The former may
be wholly mental, the latter may be wholly manual.
The successful farmer must be a skilled laborer, no matter the
amount of his manual work. The unskilled farmer can never succeed
largely, no matter how hard he works.
Trained hands with trained brains are irresistible.
Too many farmers live in the ruts cut by their great-great-
grandfathers. They still balance the corn in the sack with a
stone.
Farming is the world's greatest industry. All the ships might be
docked, all the factory wheels stopped, and all the railroads
turned to streaks of rust, and still the race would survive, but
let the plow lie idle for a year and man would perish as when the
deluge swept the mountain tops.
The next census will show considerably over 6,000,000 farms in the
United States. Farming is the greatest of all industries, as it is
the most essential. Our Government has wisely made the head of the
Department of Agriculture a cabinet officer, and the effect on our
farming interest is shown in improved methods and a larger output
of better quality.
The hap-hazard, unskilled methods of the past are disappearing.
Science is lending her aid to the tiller of the soil, and the wise
ones are reaching out their hands in welcome.
BUSINESS METHODS NEEDED
As farming is our principal business, it follows that those who
conduct this vast and varied enterprise should be business men.
The farmer is a producer of goods, and so might be regarded as a
manufacturer,--the original meaning of the word is one who makes
things by hand. He is also a seller of his own products, and a
purchaser of the products of others, so that, to some extent, he
may also be regarded as a trader or merchant.
Enterprise and business skill are the requisites of the
manufacturer and merchant. Can the farmer succeed without them?
No business can prosper without method, economy, and industry
intelligently applied.
No man works harder the year round than does the American farmer,
yet too many are going back instead of advancing. In such cases it
will be found that there is enough hard work for better results,
and that the cause of failure is that the industry has not been
properly applied, and that economy has had no consideration.
Economy does not mean niggardliness, or a determination to get
along without tools that your neighbor has purchased. A neglect to
secure the best tool needed might be classed as an extravagance, a
waste, if the tool in question could have added to the quality and
quantity of the output, without the expenditure of more labor.
Business common-sense is taking the place of old-fashioned
conservatism and scientific methods are no longer sneered at as
"book-farming."