METHODS OF CONDUCTING COST STUDIES. 37 



ments of the cattle and the hogs following them. When the cattle 

 are marketed, however, the route agent discontinues his routine 

 visits, but returns to each farm at the end of the farm year and 

 makes a survey of the entire farm business. 



OCCASIONAL VISIT AND BOOK PLAN. 



Under the occasional visit and book method, labor, feeding, 

 financial, and production records are kept by the farmer in a book 

 provided for that purpose, and occasional visits are made to the 

 farm by the supervising agent in charge of the project. These visits 

 may be made once in two months, or as infrequently as once in 

 three months. 



The value of this method * lies in the large number of farmers who 

 may be carried on the accounting project with a correspondingly 

 low cost per farm. It seems essential with this method to select 

 the farms very carefully, since much depends on the interest and 

 accuracy of the farmers. 



CORRESPONDENCE PLAN. 



The Office of Farm Management some years ago developed a cor- 

 respondence plan of cost accounting which was placed in operation 

 on a considerable number of farms in various parts of the United 

 States through approximately a 10-year period. 



The advantages of this method were the large number of farms 

 that could be covered with a given fund for study and the wide 

 range of conditions that could be represented. The disadvantages 

 were the lack of personal supervision in the recording of the data, 

 the constantly arising question as to the completeness and accuracy 

 of the records, the difficulty of keeping up the interest of the cooper- 

 ators, and the danger that the cooperator might lack the ability or 

 inclination to give the accounts through the year. The question of 

 unconscious bias is one that enters into all accounting records, and 

 lack of supervision with the cooperators far above the average in 

 intelligence and ability are factors in the bias problem. There is 

 also a tendency for cooperators to drop out after the first year, for 

 it often becomes a heavy task to keep the labor record up to date. 

 For this reason it is usually impossible to obtain long-time records 

 by this method. 



Because of the disadvantages enumerated above, it has been 

 felt that the route plan, combining some of the reporting features 

 of the correspondence method, is preferable, since it provides the 

 supervision and attention to details that are essential to complete 

 farm records. 



J The system is fully described and explained in the revised Fanners' Bulletin 572, "A System of Farm 

 Cost Accounting." 



