10 INTRODUCTION 



directions, and an enormous amount of valuable effort 

 has been applied, mainly along the lines of Natural Science, 

 to discover means for increasing production both directly 

 and indirectly. But the study of Agricultural Economics 

 has not received equal attention. It is probable that with 

 the means for examining the economy of farm management, 

 the increase of production on the farm by the application 

 of modern scientific knowledge may go hand in hand with 

 the cheapening of production and the increase of the reward 

 to those engaged in the industry ; it is certain that any 

 general effort after maximum production without the 

 exercise of this control can only be disastrous. The economic 

 law with which agricultural production has to contend 

 is the law of diminishing returns, and the attempt to wring 

 the last bushel of corn from the land and to produce 

 the last pound of meat and the last gallon of milk, is 

 only to be justified when it can be shown that maximum 

 production is accompanied by maximum financial reward. 

 It is the economic factor which controls, ultimately, all 

 productive enterprise. The soil, climate, and other con- 

 siderations are factors of very great importance, but poor 

 light soils, for example, apparently of low agricultural value, 

 may be adapted to forms of most intensive farming, given 

 access to supplies of cheap organic manures and to a suitable 

 market, whilst farms admirably suited by soil and climatic 

 conditions, say, to milk production may be useless for this 

 purpose in the absence of facilities for rapid transport to 

 large consuming centres. The successful manager is he 

 who produces not necessarily the largest output, nor that 

 which soil or climate or personal inclination indicate, but 

 that which a study of the economic factors, that is to say, 

 of markets, of transport, and of costs of production, leads 

 him to expect will yield the biggest reward for his enter- 

 prise. If farming in this country is to hold its own in com- 

 petition with other forms of industry it can only be by the 

 adoption of an organization which will result in a reward 

 to the capitalist and to the worker compatible with that 

 yielded by industrial production, and to enable it to do this 



