T HIS article is based on a milk supply adjustment study. A primary objective was to test the use of linear programming techniques on the problems of farmers: how useful it would be for telling farmers what production adjustments would pay in response to changes in technical and economic conditions. The empirical results illustrate particular extensions in the application of programming techniques, but, more important, the results are of interest from two viewpoints: first, they indicate profitable lines of change in production when facing a range of changes in conditions of factor supply, prices of labor, prices of milk, and technical possibilities. Second, they offer reasonable explanations of changes taking place in important sectors in the southern states. The data were drawn largely from dairy farms in the Piedmont areas of North Carolina, but the empirical results should also apply in general to the much larger Piedmont region of the South and, to a somewhat lesser extent, to the larger areas in which cotton and tobacco are major crops. Production of milk for fluid use increased rapidly on these farms in the North Carolina Piedmont areas between I949 and I954. Expansion of dairying was accompanied by certain changes: enlargement of smaller farms by the renting of additional land, an increase in production of pasture and hay, shifts from lower-producing breeds to the Holstein breed, elimination of cotton or tobacco on many of the dairy farms, reduction in labor supply, and an increase in use of tractors. Assumptions

THIS paper reports the results of a statistical study of the elasticity of foreign demand for Canadian exports. It sprang from the desire to obtain some criterion of the effect on export receipts of altering the exchange value of the Canadian dollar. Attention was centered on merchandise exports since, aside from Chang's attempts to measure the elasticity of the world demand for Canada's exports,' very little work seems to have been done on the export side. The Department of Trade and Commerce has made estimates of the Canadian import elasticities but it regularly treats exports as an exogenous factor in its models of the Canadian economy. This study was conducted intermittently during the last six years. During this time many different approaches to the subject were made.2 The results of what seem to be the most fruitful approach attempted so far are presented here, with only occasional references to previous attempts. This last approach is based primarily upon the statistical work of Schultz, Stone, and Horner, and the contributions to the pure theory of demand of Knight and Friedman. An attempt has been made to fashion the statistical approach so that the concepts we attempt to measure coincide as closely as practicable to the theoretically ideal ones. The first section of the paper deals with some fundamental general considerations which influenced the decision as to what statistical techniques to adopt. Sections II and III summarize the statistical findings and the last takes up some qualifications.

Abstract In sum, under Lifo, inventories no longer perform the function of taking up the slack between production and sales. Rather, inventory management policies are determined in the main by the artificial relationships developed above. The end result is a situation that accents, rather than mitigates, the undesired effects of business fluctuations by creating inflationary pressures that would other- wise be absent. The expansion and contraction stages of the inventory cycle are exaggerated, and inventory investment becomes an even more volatile component of private gross capital formation than has been in the past In the case of copper at least, the greater stability of reported earnings under Lifo does not appear to have resulted in the hoped for effect of reducing investment during the boom. Most industries that use Lifo do not have an institutional pricing structure and complete substitutability of product such as that found in copper. However, in these other industries, Formula (1) can be employed to determine the "grey" or "black" market price that a Lifo company can afford to pay for each unit of a commodity in order to improve its marginal cash position. For example, a steel company can use Formula (1), adjusted for smelt charges and technological factors, to arrive at the limit price that it can afford to pay for scrap. Or, if smelter capacity is not available and the Lifo base stock is seriously depleted, Formula (1) can be used as a guide in determining the price to be paid for scrap metal to be used to build up a processed metal inventory if permitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Both Table 1 and Formula (1) are based on the simplifying assumption that the Lifo base stock is homogeneous in composition with respect to the cost of each unit of inventory.

Reviews the book "Encyclopedia of Accounting Systems," edited by Robert I. Williams and Lillian Doris.

Abstract The author of this article examines the source and supply of teachers. He emphasizes on the publicization of teaching as a career recommending that every staff member of a school of business administration should advertise the advantages of the teaching profession. The second point he highlights is making the profession more attractive by increasing salary scales, recognition of good teaching and productivity, and encouragement of ways to promote greater efficiency. Thirdly he emphasizes on the encouragement of graduate work leading to teaching careers which include financial assistance for students, procurement of master's degree, realistic doctoral programs for potential teachers. Fourthly, he recommends the encouragement of experienced public accountants to assume teaching duties. He also recommends the encouragement of ex-teachers to assume full or part-time teaching responsibilities, tapping non-accountant sources which are related discipline for teaching assistance and using retired qualified talents. He finally proposes the re-examination of the demand for teachers by noting several points.

Abstract Believing that financial statements could not serve managerial, tax and regulatory purposes well unless they were adjusted for price changes, accountants have, particularly during the last quarter century, been anxious to employ replacement cost in the calculation of income. On the other hand, they have been reluctant to depart from the original monetary outlay for assets, that is, from cost incurred. The compromise has been to present replacement cost so that it appeared to adhere to cost incurred. The last-in first-out, or LIFO, method of inventory pricing is a good example. The LIFO implies a departure from cost incurred in favor of replacement cost or current cost. Nevertheless, the departure has been accomplished in such a manner that students of inventory accounting are apparently convinced that no departure from cost incurred is involved. The contrast between the conventional first-in first-out, or FIFO, calculation of cost of sales and the LIFO calculation has been discussed in this article with an example.

Abstract The article talks about a proposal for determining the significance of variations from standard. A primary function of cost accounting is to furnish information which can be used as a basis for action by appropriate supervisory personnel in controlling costs. Many managers, consistent with their intimate knowledge of operations, undoubtedly have developed rough gauges by which they measure performance; however, this "judgmental factor" is often not supported by objective evidence. Therefore, what may be an outside limit in the mind of the manager may or may not be justified by the historical facts. The potential uses of statistics in the area of cost control is gaining recognition. It may be that quality control techniques can be drawn upon in reaching a satisfactory solution to the problem under consideration here. The use of statistics will make possible a mathematical and orderly evaluation of the historical data; moreover, statistical quality control permits the division of the total variation of quality characteristics into chance and assignable variation. Cost accounting should be expanded to include interpreting the significance of variations. It may be helpful if objective methods can be developed which will facilitate the selection of those variations which should be explained.