802 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



product. Each in turn may be regarded as the last added, but the 

 rate of all will conform to the productivity of the one actually added 

 last, whether under conditions of increasing or of diminishing return. 

 When, on the other hand, we have to deal with exceptional kinds of 

 work, for which the available men capable of performing the work are 

 few, the device for determining the individual contribution to the 

 total product, to which recourse has been had above, is no longer 

 necessary. The work of the individual being able to be more directly 

 associated with its result, we are not met with any great difficulty in 

 answering the question: What is the net product of a man's work? 

 It was for the purpose of providing an answer to this question that 

 it was necessary to give attention to marginal productivity when 

 dealing with masses of men who, as individuals, could not be dealt 

 with, since they formed indistinguishable parts of a mass of work- 

 people, that is to say, parts indistinguishable for the purpose of assign- 

 ing a distinct part, or a distinct share of the value, of the product .to 

 the work of the individuals in question, by any other method than the 

 division of the value of the product by the number of those engaged 

 in producing it. The value so divided would need to be disentangled 

 from the productive contributions of other classes of workers, of 

 capital, etc., and the preceding discussion is designed to afford a 

 means for handling some of the obvious difficulties which the problem 

 presents. 



We pass now to the consideration of the features which call for 

 attention in reference to the supply-price of labor. This term is used 

 to denote that price which will suffice to evoke a volume of supply 

 adequate to the need at that price. Generally speaking, with a change 

 in the supply needed, there will be a change in the corresponding 

 supply-price. It may also be noted that this price is generally only 

 one of the features which serve to influence the volume of labor 

 available. Hours of labor and conditions of employment, for example, 

 may be such as to either add to or detract from the attraction of a 

 given price offered. 



As affecting the supply of labor, we need to distinguish clearly 

 between the two kinds of problems we may have to consider. The 

 supply-price may have reference to a supply, attracted to a given place 

 and industry from other places, and from such other industries as 

 can supply labor suitable for the ends in view. It may, on the other 

 hand, be used in reference to the training of boys to a particular 

 trade rather than to any of the other trades among which they are 



