Cost Accounts for Nursery 471 



Cr. 



December 31 Inventory of equipment $835 . 00 



Inventory of seed for 1915 planting 100. 00 



$935.00 

 December 31 Cost of one-year stock to date 574. 86 



$1,509.86 



Note. — The amount ($574.86) is carried to the debit side of the two-year 

 seedbed account for 1915, and on December 31, 1915, interest will be charged 

 on it as interest was charged on seed planted this year on this account. The 

 other two items ($835 and $100) will be carried to the debit side of 

 the 1915 account for First- Year Seed Beds. 



This item is charged on the debit side of the account for two- 

 year seed beds for the following year, and will have interest 

 charged on it for the whole of the next year. In a similar way, 

 the total cost of two-year stock at the end of one year is charged 

 to the transplants for the following year and the total cost of 

 transplant to the shipping account. 



The value of the system grows on one as he uses it. The 

 different parts of the system are so inter-related that any dishon- 

 est or careless charging of items is sure to show itself. If the 

 foreman at the nursery charges up more hours labor than is 

 actually spent in order to decrease the cost of labor per hour, it 

 will make no difference in the total cost of labor charged to a 

 given crop. If he tries to decrease the cost of stock during any 

 one year by increasing the value of his inventory, it simply reacts 

 on the next year's account, for compound interest will be figured 

 on this excess value. When these accounts have been kept for 

 three years, it will be possible to determine how much the final 

 crop costs per thousand at any stage in its growth. Furthermore, 

 the final cost figure is the real cost of that particular stock and 

 not simply a rough estimate. If the kind of work is carefully 

 kept on the work reports, there is no end to the amount of data 

 regarding the cost of different operations which may be 

 figured out. 



