282 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



sand two hundred dollars per year and expenses. Mr. Harris travels in 

 Minnesota at a salary of six hundred dollars and expenses. I find no 

 salary is charged up for Mr. Knight, and during the past year only sixty- 

 six dollars and twenty-five cents in traveling expenses has been paid him. 



The large item of expense during this past year was for 19,389 

 copies of the Patrons' Handbook, for which about eight thousand dol- 

 lars was paid out. This included the express charges and other neces- 

 sary expenses, both for getting up the book and delivering same to the 

 purchasers and sent out on commission. The ledger shows books out on 

 commission to several hundred creameries, amounting to about six 

 thousand dollars, that are not settled for, and about eight thousand five 

 hundred dollars has been received from the sale of books. I saw all the 

 bills, went into the files, took all the bills, examined them and saw they 

 were properly receipted by the Regan Printing Co., of Chicago, where 

 the books were made, and all the separate bills that went to make up 

 the large item of $8,000. 



The donations from the one cent a tub contracts have netted this 

 year nearly four thousand dollars, 



I found the books kept in a systematic manner and balanced each 

 month, and are entirely separate books from the Chicago Produce books, 

 with the exception of the cash account, which each day is balanced into 

 the Chicago Produce account. In other words, the cash ac- 

 count on our ledger reads "Chicago Produce account." On looking inio 

 the reason for this, I found that the account was more than half the 

 time overdrawn, and we owed Chicago Produce oh January 31st 

 of this year over $100; February 28th, $400; March 31st, $1,130; April 

 30th, $1,750; May 31st, $2,000; June 30th, $1,700; July 31st, $1,600, and 

 August 31st we had a credit again of $200. Hence, by keeping the cash 

 together we have received quite a benefit by having our bills paid 

 promptly without formally borrowing money. 



I found that all items paid out had voucher receipts filed away ac- 

 cording to date, and easily accessible. Mr. Knight and all the office 

 force were very courteous to me and gave me every assistance possible 

 to get at the facts wherewith to make this report. I w^ent over several 

 months and took every voucher, no matter if only for twenty-five cents 

 for express receipts, went over them very carefully, took at random bne 

 month and found all recipts in their regular order for every item, no 

 matter how small or how big. I went over several months that way. I 

 did not go over the whole year, for it would take me weeks to do that. 

 I satisfied myself that everything was done in shipshape. 



I would recommend that two new accounts be opened, one showing 

 the amount paid in each month on the "one cent a tub contracts," and 

 one "Patrons' Handbook account," so that anyone interested can see at 

 a glance the amount received from each source at any time, without go- 

 ing over the petty accounts of same, which, as I have said before, are 

 several hundred. 



