ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 311 



parcel of land; there is also an amount of land and of equipment with 

 which a given individual can work most profitably; and some par- 

 ticular-amount of land upon which and of labor with which a given 

 piece of capital equipment can secure the greatest return. 



To all this Professor Taylor adds the observation that these com- 

 binations of land, labor, and capital likewise take on group properties 

 of their own, and that the injudicious combining of these industrial 

 composites results in low proportionate return to those which are in 

 excess, in a way similar to that displayed in combinations of the 

 separate factors. In terms of the farmer's problem this means merely 

 that he must answer questions of organization external to his particular 

 farm as well as those which are internal to it. He must ask himself 

 whether any certain line of farm production be in a stage of diminishing 

 returns as compared with other lines, or even whether agriculture as 

 a whole shows a smaller proportionate return to land, labor, and 

 capital used in it than to equal quantities of these factors directed 

 toward trade or manufacturing enterprise. A decade ago many of 

 our best young men exercised their entrepreneur function by deserting 

 the farm and helping to direct land, labor, and capital to the more 

 profitable industrial employments. Today many city boys are turn- 

 ing toward the country, and much city capital is being diverted to our 

 agricultural lands. Each back-to-the-land-er adds his influence in. 

 favor of a new organization of our whole economic system. 



As to the choice of farm enterprises, or lines of production, it is 

 quite evident that no set rule can be laid down. The agricultural 

 scientist, to be sure, can tell us quite definitely what are the technical 

 possibilities of a given farm or region, but the determination of eco- 

 nomic expediency (which means maximum profitableness) is another, 

 and more complicated, matter. In the latter case, costs of production 

 under the given conditions of agricultural technique, transportation 

 facilities, and market situation are not less important than soil con- 

 tent, rainfall, and temperature. The agricultural scientist concerns 

 himself with a gross physical product, the agricultural- economist with 

 a net-value product. A reading of selections 103 and 104 will serve 

 to show some of the examinations and comparisons which the farmer 

 must make in deciding which enterprises would be most profitable. 



A choice of enterprises having been made, it might seem to be a 

 comparatively easy matter to organize the working plant for efficient 

 production of this output. Here, however, the farmer is confronted 

 by certain difficulties which press upon him more heavily than upon 



