SPECIAL ACCOUNTS AND ENTRIES 125 



count does not warrant their use, since an analysis of the 

 mixed accounts on the farm is not as essential and the 

 entries in any one account are so few in number, (b) 

 The kinds of commodities requiring mixed accounts on 

 the farm are more numerous than in the average trading 

 business, and represent departments of farming opera- 

 tions, the main object of which is to find the profit or loss 

 in each, (c) There is seldom occasion in farming transac- 

 tions to record returned commodities. Consequently the 

 mixed accounts on the farm almost invariably contain, 

 aside from inventories, only items at cost price on the 

 debit side, and at selling price on the credit side, (d) 

 In case of farm animals there are additions due to the 

 natural increase which are not taken into account, except 

 through the inventory at the close of the fiscal period. 

 The mixed account affords the best way of accounting for 

 the natural increase. 



The most common mixed accounts on the farm are those 

 representing the commodities from which an income is de- 

 rived, as the livestock accounts and grain accounts. The 

 equipment used in production is also recorded in mixed 

 accounts sometimes, but it is better not to keep the ex- 

 penses and incomes from this class of resource in the re- 

 source account. This is especially true in cost accounting. 



Horses. On the average farm where the primary object 

 of keeping horses is to assist in the farm work, Horses ac- 

 count is debited with the inventory value of horses on hand 

 at the beginning of the fiscal period and with any expenses 

 incurred on their behalf during the period. It is cred- 

 ited with any income from the use or sale of horses and 

 with the inventory value of all horses on hand at the close 

 of the year. The balance represents a loss or gain for 

 the year. 



In cost accounting it is advisable to keep separate ac- 

 counts for work horses and other horses, if any general 



