UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
I BULLETIN No. 520 
Contribution from the Office of Markets and Rural 
Organization, CHARLES J. BRAND, Chief 
Washington, D. C. 
June 26. 1917 
A SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTS FOR COTTON WARE 
HOUSES. 
By Roy L. Newton, Assistant in Warehouse Investigations, and 
John R. Humphrey, Investigator in Market Business Practice. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Description of the system 2 
The tag '. 2 
The certificate of inspection 3 
The warehouse receipt 4 
The consecutive tag record 7 
The individual account record 7 
The location book 8 
The out-turn order 8 
Page. 
Description of the system— Continued. 
The daily report 9 
Cash journal 9 
Cash disbursement ticket 11 
Cash receipt ticket 11 
Sale ticket 11 
Operation of the system 11 
Arrangement of bales in the warehouse 13 
Conclusion 13 
INTRODUCTION. 
The warehouse receives cotton for the account of another party, 
provides the owner with a proper place for conserving his product, 
and gives its receipt as evidence that the cotton has been stored. 
Upon the integrity and financial standing of the warehouse which 
issues this receipt depends the value of the receipt, and it should be 
the desire and aim of every warehouseman to give his receipt its 
utmost value. 
The efficiency of a cotton warehouse depends in a very large degree 
upon its methods of keeping accounts and records of its transactions. 
The general use of a simple, concise system of accounts, compre- 
hensive enough to fill the needs of the larger as well as of the small 
warehouse, would be a step toward the adoption of a standardized 
system of cotton-warehouse accounting. 
To attempt to fill the need for a satisfactory system of accounts 
capable of general use, to suggest forms of warehouse receipts which 
Note.— This bulletin should be of special interest to all cotton warehousemen and of general interest to 
their patrons and to those who are concerned in the reliability of warehouse receipts. 
72961°— Bull. 520—17 1 
