14 BULLETIN 660, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
keeper's accounts. The ledger, it is well to recall, contains only as 
debits the funds received or appropriated and as credits the pay- 
ments made from those various funds summarized from a record 
which carries the distribution of these expenditures according to 
subheadings or primary accounts. It is usual to classify accounts 
as far as possible by departments, or with respect to certain functions 
for which funds are provided. Such a classification of accounts pro- 
vides the first division for the cost keeper. This division gives what 
usually are known as the general accounts. Numbers or letters 
are used to represent these accounts, and in these letters or symbols 
we have the beginning of a code for cost keeping. The following 
classification and corresponding letters show a departmental division 
of accounts and a letter code suitable for highway work: 
GENERAL ACCOUNTS. 
C. Construction. — M. Maintenance. — R. Reconstruction. — P. Plant. — 
A. Administration. 
The first three of these, it will be observed, have to do with certain 
road operations. It will be found upon analysis that they consist 
of the operations necessary to produce or preserve road parts. A 
subdivision of these general accounts produces what are called the 
primary accounts. Such a division is shown below. The accom- 
panying numbers give a development of the cost-keeping code: 
C, M, AND R. CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE AND RECONSTRUCTION. 
00 to 09. Right of way. 
10 to 19. Grade and roadside. 
20 to 29. Roadway. 
30 to 39. Ditches and drains. 
70 to 79. Plant accounts. 
40 to 49. Bridges and culverts. 
50 to 59. Supplementary parts. 
60 to 69. Engineering and supervision. 
p. PLANT. 
A. ADMINISTRATION. 
80 to 99. Administration accounts. 
The numbers preceding the primary account give the range of 
class numbers for the final cost-keeping code. Thus 30 to 39 are 
the inclusive numbers for class costs of ditches and drains. This 
first division of the general accounts would serve very satisfactorily 
for a simple cost-keeping system. In such case the first set of num- 
bers could be omitted and ditches and drains would be represented 
by 39 instead of the range of numbers from 30 to 39. 
