VI 



ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE 

 AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 



Introduction 



We come now to the very heart of the problem of agricultural 

 production. Here we pass from the study of concrete objects to a 

 consideration of abstract relationships. We have been talking of 

 physically measurable qualities of soil and climate, human beings, live- 

 stock, and farming implements. Our task there was somewhat similar 

 to that of the chemist when he studies the various elements of which 

 our earth is made. Now we pass on to study the behavior of these 

 elements when they are brought together under different circum- 

 stances, and to ascertain the qualities, good and bad, of the different 

 compounds so produced. 



By doing this we hope to learn how to bring together the right 

 quantities of the proper ingredients under conditions favorable to 

 desired forms of activity. The chemist who knows the valences of 

 the elements with which he is dealing and the laws of their behavior 

 under different conditions of heat and pressure can teach the manu- 

 facturer to avoid waste by using his materials in their proper combin- 

 ing proportions, and to secure a desirable and salable product instead 

 of the uncertain or inferior product of chance mixtures or unfavorable 

 conditions. Dependable and profitable results can be regularly 

 secured only by those who possess knowledge of the properties of the 

 materials and forces with which they work, and secure thereby con- 

 trol of their operation. 



The same general principle holds good in the case of economic 

 organization. Fundamental to our study of the effective organization 

 of agricultural enterprise, therefore, is an understanding of the law of 

 combining proportions, which is but the broader application of the 

 law of diminishing returns, already studied in its particular bearing 

 upon the land factor. In selection 100 Professor Carver demonstrates 

 that, under given circumstances of agricultural technique and market 

 conditions, there will be one most profitable (and many less profitable) 

 combinations of labor and capital which might be applied to a given 



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