2 BULLETIN 520, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
can be recommended for the use of cotton warehouses, and to promote 
the general use of uniform receipts are the aims of this bulletin. It 
describes a simple system of accounts for the use of cotton ware- 
houses, which will be found comprehensive enough to meet the 
requirements of any organization which does only a cotton ware- 
housing business. 1 A complete set of forms is shown and their use 
explained. More complex organizations, such as compresses which 
conduct a warehouse business or warehouses that maintain various 
other departments, of necessity will be compelled to enlarge upon a 
system of this character, but an effort has been made to have the 
primary ideas practicable even for such organizations. The best fea- 
tures of the systems already in use have been combined into this 
system, which has been tried out under commercial conditions. 
Simplicity in any system of accounts is desirable, so that rapidity 
in handling maybe attained without sacrificing accurac}^, and the 
plan must be such that any data desired are quickly available. 
Information may be needed in regard to a certain lot of cotton or a 
certain outstanding receipt; about a specific bale in a remote corner 
of the warehouse or the exact number of bales a certain patron may 
have in storage. The records should be such that any one, or all, 
of these inquiries may be answered immediately. All of the forms 
used should be interlocking, so that if one fact is known full particu- 
lars may be obtained by a reference to that fact. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM. 
As this bulletin is intended to be sufficiently complete to enable a 
warehouseman to install the system, a detailed description of the 
forms comprising it is essential. The complete system includes the 
following twelve forms, which will be described in the order of their 
use: 
(1) The tag; (2) the certificate of inspection; (3) A, B, C, D, or 
E), the warehouse receipt; (4) the consecutive tag record; (5) the 
individual account record; (6) the location book; (7) the outturn 
order; (8) the daily report; (9) the cash journal; (10) the cash dis- 
bursement ticket; (11) the cash receipt ticket; (12) the sale ticket. 
THE TAG. 
Various methods are in use in cotton warehouses for the identifi- 
cation of the bales, but by far the most successful, and the one most 
generally used, is that of the numbered tag, supplemented by a record 
of the owner's private mark. Form I (page 14) shows a form of tag 
that is recommended. In every instance the tag should be made of 
reasonably heavy waterproof paper or of linen. Double eyelets with 
1 Many warehousemen doing a small business find it convenient and profitable to deal in various com- 
modities during the spring and summer, when there is little demand for storage. For this reason provi- 
sion has been made for this class of business in the system of accoimts described herein. 
