UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



,,„, BULLETIN No. 559 



Contribution from the Office of Markets and Rural Orgination 

 &&&* S &J'l*. CHARLES J. BRAND, Chief J&SP^TU 



Washington, D. C. 



▼ 



July 14, 1917 



ACCOUNTING RECORDS FOR COUNTRY CREAMERIES. 



By John R. Humphrey, Investigator in Market Business Practice, and G. A. Nahstgll, 

 Assistant in Market Business Practice. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

 Advantages of standardizing accounting sys- 

 tems 1 



Types of creamery organization 2 



Operating methods 3 



Accounting conditions 4 



Accounting requisites 4 



Auditing 5 



Description of the forms 5 



Page. 

 Method of operating the system in coopera- 

 tive creameries 12 



Changes necessary under private manage- 

 ment 22 



Cost accounting 23 



Conclusion 23 



Forms following. . 24 



ADYANTAGES OF STANDARDIZING ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS. 



Ill modern business, where numerous operating units are con- 

 ducted along generally similar lines, a distinct tendency toward 

 standardization has been shown. The country creamery offers a 

 problem both of factory and of commercial organization. It is 

 engaged not alone in the preparation and sale of dairy products but 

 in the processing and manufacturing of raw materials into the several 

 finished commodities — butter, cheese, condensed or evaporated milk, 

 casein, and dry and powdered milk. The methods pursued, though 

 varying in many particulars in different sections of the country, are 

 similar in most of the fundamental details. Standardization of 

 accounting methods and business practices, therefore, as in other 

 lines of business, is both desirable and feasible. To this end the 

 adoption of uniform methods of cost and general accounting is a 

 necessary first step. 



Note.— This bulletin is intended for all farmers' cooperative and other country creameries throughout 

 the United States. It contains copies of forms and a description of their uses for a system of accounts 

 which is being recommended by the Office of Markets and Rural Organization and by the Dairy Divi- 

 sion of the United States Department of Agriculture as a uniform system of accounting for country 

 creameries. 



92644°— Bull. 559—17 1 



