VI. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE AGRI- 

 CULTURAL ENTERPRISE 



QUESTIONS 



i. Is there a function of organization or business enterprise which 

 constitutes a fourth factor of production similar to land, labor, and 

 capital ? 



2. What are the attributes by which we may distinguish it? Is 

 it separate from labor ? 



3. The other factors are quantitative, are they not? also qualita- 

 tive ? Is organization or entrepreneurship qualitative ? quantitative ? 

 Explain. 



4. May we now put in a fourth factor in our equation of produc- 

 tion E ? Shall we give it an exponent ? a coefficient ? 



5. Does it perhaps indicate rather the power to which the three 

 quantitative factors are raised? How would this be: 



(ioZ/'+6^+ 3 C0 e = 15P? 



This indicates roughly that the coefficients of land are fertility and 

 location; of labor, the efficiency of the worker; and of capital, the 

 technical quality of the capital-good. Modifying the whole equation 

 is the efficiency of the organization in which they are joined, expressed 

 here by the coefficient e outside the trinomial. 



6. Show that the law of diminishing returns applies equally to 

 each of the factors of production. Does the expression "law of com- 

 bining proportions'' seem to you to express this idea more clearly 

 than the older expression "diminishing returns" ? 



7. Does this same question of most profitable proportion come up 

 in connection with the relationship of various farm enterprises one to 

 another? For instance, how many chickens will give the greatest 

 profit on a farm which has a certain acreage in grain, a certain num- 

 ber of livestock, and a certain number of women and children in the 

 family ? 



8. Show that this is the real problem of one-crop v. diversified 

 agriculture. 



9. Show that the same issue is involved in the most profitable 

 adjustment of agriculture to our industrial development, commercial 

 facilities, and the whole complex of economic activities. 



10. Show that a wise choice of enterprises is the beginning of wis- 

 dom for the farmer. 



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