Cost Accounts for Nursery 469 



reports. The work reports, which are the key to the distribution 

 of the cost of man labor, horse labor, and equipment, are per- 

 haps the distinctive characteristic of the system. 



The cost of all man labor, regardless of what crop it is put on, 

 is charged on one ledger account. In addition, daily work reports 

 are kept for each crop on which separate cost figures are desired. 

 Thus at the end of each day the foreman charges up on the work 

 report for one year seed beds the total number of hours of labor 

 which have been spent on them for that day by the whole crew. 



WORK REPORT 

 First Year Seed Beds {Seed Planted 1914) 



Man Horse 

 Date Kind of Work Hours Hours 



May 16 Making seed beds 4 8 



May 23 Making seed beds 27 



May 25 Making seed beds 16 



Jtine 1 Treating with formalin 12 



June 2 Drawing sand 10 10 



June 16 Sowing seed 12 



The same is done for second-year seed beds, transplants, and 

 shipping. At the end of the year each work report will show 

 the total number of hours of labor which have been spent for 

 the year on that particular crop, and the sum of all these totals 

 will show how many hours labor have been spent on the whole 

 nursery. The total cost of man labor, as shown on the ledger 

 account for man labor, divided by this total hours of man labor, 

 gives the average cost of man labor per hour for the year. 



For example, the total cost of man labor on our Burlington 

 nursery last year was $1,999.69. The sum of all our work re- 

 ports showed a total of 9,323 hours man labor. 



$1,999.69 -H 9,323 = $.215 



cost of man labor per hour. This average cost per hour multi- 

 plied by the number of hours of labor spent on a given crop gives 

 the total cost of labor for that crop. In the Burlington nursery 

 there were 6,529 hours of man labor spent on transplants. 



6,529 X $2,215 = $1,403.73 cost of man labor on transplants. 



The special equipment which is used only for one crop, such 

 as the screens for one-year seed beds, is charged direct on the 

 ledger account for that crop. A separate ledger account is kept 

 for the general equipment and the total cost of this is distri- 

 buted in proportion to the number of hours of man labor. 



