Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-01-25
Yours on the job,
HIGH FINANCE.
Starting Farm Costs Ac..


counts.
Clemson College, Jan. "a farm
is usually composed of several branch
es or industries. In this state, cotton
and corn are the principal sources of
farm income, though some sections
have farms on which livestock is the
important industry, while truck is
important in other sections. The far
mer who starts his accounts the first
of January should open a double-en-
try or at least a complete account,
so as to have on hand IN account with
each industry on the farm, suggests
w. C.. Jensen, specialist in farm
economics. If a crop is grown an a
very small scale, it need not always
be considered, but it is best to in
clude everything. Patches of Irish po-
%tatoes, watermelons, ETC., may be-
grouped together into a garden ac-
count.
The first step. An inventory must
be taken first of all. AS a rule it is
taken the first day of the year, but
in the trucking section, the first Of
July is preferable. The best method
to use in determining values is to es-
innate what a fair selling price would
be on each article, although the
forced sale and sliding scale meth
DDS have been used. The method to
employ depends largely upon the ma
ture of the article being inventoried.
In case of commodities having no
market price, such as ensilage, a spe-
cial method is necessary. This con-
sists in taking the market price of a
|bushel of com minus the cost of
hauling to market, estimating the
number of bushels, and adding to
this a fair value on the stalks, which
can be closely estimated.
The second step is to divide the
book used so that each industry will
have a place of its own, and label
each industry, r%eserving the left
hand page for charges and the right
hand page for credits. A typical farm
might have these divisions: mules,
cows, hogs, poultry, cotton, corn,
oats, wheat, potatoes, garden, per-
sonal. An ordinary ledger indexed
with gummed labels, is very conve-
nient for this work.
The third step, which endures
through the year, consists of the
daily practice of entering all charges
and credits in their proper places.
Labor requires special attention, max
ing up as it does so alrge a part of
the cost of production. In order to de-
termine what the labor cost is on each
crop or on the stock, the number OF
labor hours oman hours and mule
hours stated separately must be en-
tered under the proper industries on
the charge side. 1t is desirable to en-
ter at the same time the natur of the
operation, whether breaking, harrow
ing, etc.
The above statements apply to the
keeping of complete cost accounts.
The check-book method is shorter,
but not as complete. 1t is designed
for the determination of the labor in
come of the farm as a whole, to-
gether with the costs and profits on
two or three of the leading indus
tries of the farm. The inventory is
taken in the same way as in complete
farm accounting, and the other work
is in principle the same as in COM
plete accounting. This method is es-
pecially suitable to operators who
handle several farms and who desire
to have a general line on what each
individual farm is doing. A limited
number. of forms can be had from
Clemson College for this method.