UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



^ BULLETIN No. 590 



Contribution from the Bureau of Markets, 

 CHARLES J. BRAND, Chief. 



Washington, D. C. 



February 27, 1918 



A SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTING FOR FRUIT SHIPPING 

 ORGANIZATIONS. 



By G. A. Nahstoll and John R. Humphrey, Investigators in Market Business 



Practice. 1 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Bookkeeping 2 



Office equipment 3 



Description of the system 3 



Method of operating the system 11 



The ledger 18 



Page. 



Cost statements 25 



Monthly statements 27 



Closing the books 28 



Financial statements 29 



Filing the records 30 



INTRODUCTION. 



A study of the accounting systems in use in fruit shipping organi- 

 zations in the West and Pacific Northwest has disclosed a wide varia- 

 tion in methods and forms, for the detail of the accounting procedure 

 has been allowed to be affected greatly by the varying plans of 

 organization, kind of products handled, and local conditions generally. 



In standardizing accounting forms and procedure, it was deemed 

 advisable to confine all efforts to devising a system for use in local 

 or assembling associations which market their output through a sell- 

 ing agent and which may or may not operate community packing- 

 houses. Minor modifications of the system and the introduction of 

 other forms may be found advisable in adapting the system to the 

 requirements of associations acting in the dual capacity of assembling 

 and selling organizations, in which case it may be found necessary to 

 provide a record for the segregation of the sale of the fruit by dis- 

 tricts. Since there is a wide variation among organizations in this 

 particular, and since local conditions govern the matter, no attempt 

 has been made to cover this point. 



Note.— This bulletin should be of interest to all fruit shipping organizations and particularly to those 

 operating under the procedure which now exists in the Pacific Northwest. 



1 J. H. Conn, assistant in Market Business Practice, was actively associated in the devising of the 

 forms and the experimental operation of the system. 

 5896°— 18— Bull. 590—1 



