10 BULLETIN 811, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
or under General ledger, depending upon whether the disbursement 
was for a cash purchase of merchandise, payment of a note, an open 
account, or an expense item. 
General ledger. — The General ledger columns are for entries of 
all items to be posted to accounts which appear in the General Ledger 
and for which no special columns are provided. The left-hand 
column accommodates the debits and the right-hand column the 
credits. Postings from these columns will be made in detail. 
It will be noted that only the items which appear in the General 
ledger and Accounts receivable columns are posted in detail, all 
other columns, both debit and credit, being posted in total only. 
REPORTS— GRAIN, MERCHANDISE, AND MANAGER'S. 
The Grain Report (Form No. 8, p. 52) is designed to keep the 
manager and directorate in close touch with the condition of the 
grain stock and the hedges at the end of any month, or, in fact, at 
any time at which the entries on the various grain forms are footed. 
On this report items 1, 6, and 11 are taken from the previous 
report, being the amounts shown thereon as Storage outstanding 
to-day, Total purchased to date, and Total sales to date. Items 
2, 4, 7, 8, 12, and 13 are the footings, for the period, of the Record 
of Storage Tickets Issued, Record of Stored Grain Purchased, Record 
of Cash Grain Purchased, Record of Shipments and Sales, and the 
local sales of grain entered in the Cash Journal, respectively. Item 
19, Undelivered sales, is the undelivered "sales to arrive" as shown 
by the Record of Sales to Arrive. Item 22, Proprietorship grain, 
is any grain on hand that has been purchased but not sold, plus 
any undelivered grain on growers' contracts. This item always 
represents the amount of grain to be hedged. Items 24 and 25 are 
taken from the Record of Hedges. By a comparison of item 24 
with item 22, or item 25 with item 23, the manager and directors 
can tell at once whether the open option deals are legitimate hedging 
transactions. In case the elevator is fully protected, the amount 
of uncanceled futures sold should equal the proprietorship grain, 
and the uncanceled futures bought should equal the amount over- 
sold, or the excess of sales over purchases. Owing to the fluctuations 
in the spread between contract grades and the lower grades, it is 
usually inadvisable to hedge the latter. 
Item 26, Balance long, indicates the amount of unprotected grain 
and is ascertained by deducting item 24 from item 22 or item 23 
from item 25. Item 27, Balance short, indicates illegitimate holdings 
of options and is ascertained by deducting item 22 from item 24 
or item 25 from item 23. 
In this report all grain in transit is considered as grain on hand. 
Therefore in determining the amount of insurable grain in the house, 
the grain in transit should be deducted from item 15, Grain in elevator. 
