COST ACCOUNTING 283 



laneous supplies inventories or deferred charges, transfer 

 such balance to General Expense account. This applies 

 especially to Labor, Exchange Labor, Equipment Expense, 

 and Silage. The transfer is made by entry in the cash 

 journal. 



14. Post all entries made under instructions 12 and 13 

 above, bringing down any inventories recorded under the 

 Field, Silage, Equipment Expense or other accounts. 



15. Close General Expense account after considering 

 miscellaneous inventories or deferred charges, distributing 

 its balance over the several productive elements (crops and 

 livestock). This being a small item, usually, it is more 

 practical to apportion it over the several crop and livestock 

 accounts arbitrarily than to attempt a careful, more scien- 

 tific distribution. As an illustration, if wheat, hay and 

 cattle are the major elements on a given farm, they should 

 bear a large share of the general expense, leaving only a 

 small share to be borne by the less important crops and 

 livestock. Having decided on the amount to be charged 

 to each productive element, make an entry in the cash 

 journal, debiting the several crop and livestock accounts 

 and crediting General Expense with enough to balance it. 



16. Post the entries made under instruction 15, ruling 

 off each account in the ledger whose total debits equal its 

 total credits. 



17. At this point, all the accounts remaining open or 

 that have inventories brought down after closing should 

 represent cither resources, liabilities (including Capital ac- 

 count), or the transactions with productive elements, 

 Household, Horses, or extraordinary gains or losses. In or- 

 der to find the aggregate net gain or loss for the year, find 

 the net gain or loss on each productive element, and trans- 

 fer it to the Loss and Gain account. The inventory in 

 each productive element is credited to its appropriate ac- 

 count before closing and is brought down on the debit side 



