432 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



cooperate. By this method, the problem of combining comple- 

 mentary enterprises in such a manner as will keep the labor and 

 equipment employed as nearly continuously as possible and in 

 the lines of production which will prove most profitable, can be 

 worked out in a manner fairly satisfactory. Furthermore, the 

 contact with the farm under conditions of normal commercial 

 agriculture gives validity to the results secured and gives the 

 opportunity for developing a system of records which may ulti- 

 mately be used by an intelligent farmer in determining what to 

 produce. 



When one turns from the question of what to produce to the 

 question of how it should be produced, the problem becomes one 

 which requires controlled experiments. The major economic 

 problem relating to the question of how to produce the articles 

 decided upon, centers in the question of the proportions in which 

 the factors of production shall be utilized, the best-known phase 

 of which is the problem of intensity of culture. This is a ques- 

 tion regarding which agriculturists, economists, and farmers have 

 theorized for centuries, but regarding which no adequate ex- 

 periments have been carried out. In the theoretical analysis of 

 this problem, the point has been reached where experiments are 

 essential to further progress. 



The proper degree of intensity of culture must be determined 

 for each farm, and the result will change with variation in the 

 wages of labor, the cost of equipment, and the price of land. 

 The first step toward progress in this line is the discovery of a 

 method of experimentation which can be applied upon any farm 

 without state aid and without endangering the profits of the 

 farmer. 



Experiments with a series of plots with varying treatment are 

 valuable for ascertaining physical and biological truths, but it 

 is doubtful if they are of use in the field of economics for the 

 simple reason that while the laws of economics which determine 

 the proper degree of intensity of culture are of general applica- 

 tion, the conditions are so variable that the proper degree of in- 

 tensity on one farm is not necessarily the proper degree on 

 another. Plot experiments on the intensity of culture would 



