COMPLETE SET OF COST ACCOUNTS 487 



been found to charge each enterprise with its proper share 

 of the cost. However, one must be careful in all special 

 cases. For instance, one might have a lot of incubators 

 and special poultry equipment, and yet horses may do little 

 work for hens. In such a case, the special poultry equip- 

 ment should be kept in the hen account as was done in 

 this set of accounts. Hens also had to pay a small amount 

 for the use of general farm equipment. One may have a 

 large amount of equipment for a crop that he grows little 

 of. This makes the real cost of equipment out of propor- 

 tion to the area of the crop. 



A little judgment in using the method will usually make 

 it safe to charge equipment in this way. We must also 

 remember that cost accounting does not expect to get ab- 

 solutely accurate results. It does not pay to spend too 

 much time trying to avoid small errors that will not affect 

 one's conclusions. 



293. Labor. Man and horse labor are charged to each 

 enterprise at the same rate of pay, unless special labor is 

 hired at a special rate, as in harvest, when it may be 

 charged directly to the crop. The time of yearly men costs 

 less per month in the winter, but actually costs 

 more per hour than in summer, because the days are so 

 much shorter. It is not desirable to charge this labor at 

 different rates, because we are trying to find which enter- 

 prises pay higher wages. 



291. Horses. On most farms, horses are kept pri- 

 marily for work. The best way to handle this account is to 

 find the total cost of horse labor and distribute this cost 

 among the different farm enterprises in proportion to the 

 time spent on them. If colts are raised, they are for the 

 purpose of reducing the cost of horse labor. Only in very 

 rare instances do we find farms where pure-bred or fancy 



