ACCOUNTS AS MEASURES OF MANAGEMENT 31 



employs labor on the books under conditions of diminishing returns 

 as compared with other farm employments ? For what sort of farm 

 accounting is the diary method adequate ? What are its limitations ? 



4. "Most of the bulletins on farm bookkeeping and farm costs 

 deal with the subject from a purely statistical point of view without 

 involving principles of double-entry bookkeeping. Very often they 

 fail to provide for proper correlation and interpretation of results after 

 they are obtained." Does this involve one criticism or two of ordi- 

 nary methods of farm accounting? What are the merits of the 

 double-entry system? May single-entry accounts be "properly cor- 

 related and interpreted" ? 



5. "When economic conditions have so changed as to make it 

 necessary to keep accounts on the farm, the farmer who says he doesn't 

 have time to keep them will be about as well off as if he told the ele- 

 vator owner to destroy the grain check, as he didn't have time to call 

 for it. In either case he is not getting all he should from the operation 

 of the farm." Are the two cases precisely analogous ? Explain fully. 

 Expound the word "necessary" in this quotation. 



ADDITIONAL REFERENCES 



Scovill, Farm Accounting. (In press.) 



Roberts, The Farmer's Business Handbook. 



Warren, Farm Management, chaps, xvi and xvii. 



Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. IV, chap. vi. 



Thomson, "The Use of a Diary for Farm Accounts," Farmer's Bulletin 782, 



U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

 Mowry, "Machinery Cost of Farm Operations in Western New York," 



Bulletin 338, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

 Valentine, American Economic Review, Supplement, March, 1913, p. 102. 

 (Also numerous cost-of-production studies of the U.S. Department of 



Agriculture and state experiment stations.) 



TOPICS FOR SPECIAL PAPERS 



How to Make a Farm Inventory. 



Outline of a Particular Set of Accounts and Their Results. 

 The Role of Cost Accounting in Modern Farming. 

 Work Records and Their Use. 



