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SIGNATURE STEPHANIE PIERCE
TITLE ASSISTANT TREASURER
WARNING: THE EDGAR SYSTEM ENCOUNTERED ERROR(S) WHILE PROCESSING THIS SCHEDULE.
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<NAME> DREYFUS BALANCED FUND, INC.
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</TABLE>
Report of Independent Auditors
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors of
Dreyfus Balanced Fund, Inc.
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Dreyfus
Balanced Fund, Inc. for the
year ended August 31, 1999, we considered its internal control, including
control activities for
safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for
the purpose of expressing our
opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the requirements of
Form N-SAR, and not to
provide assurance on the internal control.
The management of Dreyfus Balanced Fund, Inc. is responsible for
establishing and maintaining internal
control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and judgments by
management are required to assess
the expected benefits and related costs of controls. Generally, controls
that are relevant to an audit
pertain to the entity's objective of preparing financial statements for
external purposes that are fairly
presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.
Those controls include the
safeguarding of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may
occur and not be detected. Also,
projection of any evaluation of internal control to future periods is
subject to the risk that it may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of the
design and operation may
deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that
might be material weaknesses under standards established by the American
Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the design or
operation of one or more of the
specific internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low
level the risk that errors or fraud
in amounts that would be material in relation to the financial statements
being audited may occur and
not be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of
performing their assigned
functions. However, we noted no matters involving internal control and its
operation, including controls
for safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as
defined above at August 31,
1999.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of the board of
directors and management of
Dreyfus Balanced Fund, Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission and
is not intended to be and
should not be used by anyone other than these specified parties.
ERNST & YOUNG LLP
October 6, 1999
