COST ACCOUNTING 225 



or other suitable 'books of original entry, and the ledger, 

 the same as in general accounting. In addition to these it 

 is necessary to keep books of record into which to collect 

 data concerning the transactions between the different farm 

 elements. It is not practical to make an entry in the gen- 

 eral books (cash journal and ledger) for every day's labor 

 chargeable to the wheat crop, for example. Neither is it 

 practical to make an entry at the close of each day credit- 

 ing Corn and debiting Horses, Swine or Poultry for the 

 value of feed consumed during the day. Instead of making 

 these entries every day, the data that would otherwise go 

 to make up such entries are collected elsewhere, along with 

 similar data from other days. At the close of a year or 

 month, the aggregate of similar data is used as a basis for 

 making an entry in the cash journal. Thus the Wheat, 

 Corn, Horses, Swine and Poultry accounts are affected ulti- 

 mately by each day's labor or each day's feed to the same 

 extent they would have been, had the entries been made 

 in the cash journal every day. Obviously the work in- 

 volved is much less when the labor and feed costs can be 

 collected in subsidiary records and the aggregate results 

 used in debiting and crediting the accounts affected. 



The subsidiary records that are in most common use 

 on a farm are the Labor Record, Horse Labor Record, and 

 Feed Record. The Tractor Hour Record is becoming use- 

 ful. 



Labor Records. The Labor record always means the 

 record showing the number of hours and value of labor 

 performed by man, on each element of farm activity. 



Monthly Labor Record. Illustration 41 presents a form 

 which is bound in book form or created as a loose leaf 

 record to show the class of work each farm hand is engaged 

 in each day. 



At the close of each day the number of hours spent on 

 each farm element is recorded as in Illustration 41, For 





