330 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F. 
scheme for the determination of farming costs of production and financial results are 
examined, and it is suggested that these difficulties lie within the sphere of the agricul- 
turist rather than in that of the accountant, and that they cannot be overcome without 
the closest co-operation between the farmer and the cost accountant. Finally, 
consideration is given to the difficulties in the way of the correct interpretation of 
the costing data, and it is suggested that this lies partly within the sphere of the 
economist, in order that the apparent weak links in the management of any particular 
farm may be reviewed in the light of general economic conditions. 
(6) Mr. R. B. Forrester.—The Marketing of Agricultural Products. ° 
Recent economic developments affecting the marketing of farm products—Experi- 
ence of the United States and Denmark—tThe tendency towards classification, grading 
and standardisation—The conception of pooling and orderly marketing—Certain 
characteristic features of marketing development in the case of perishable products 
such as milk and fruit—Problem of a rapid system of sales organisation—Problem of 
surplus and storage—Growth of the idea of producers’ control, its relation to the 
middleman system and to Governmental agency—Relation of the State to marketing— 
The services which may be performed by Governments to assist in the efficient 
marketing of produce—Experience of the United States Department of Agriculture— 
Growth of the inspection, grading and informational service—The essential problems 
of marketing for which responsibility must be assumed by any organisation, whether 
Governmental, co-operative or private—The position of the consumer—Tests of an 
efficient marketing organisation—The relation of recent developments in marketing 
in other countries to the position of the British producer—The influence of the growing 
standardisation of foreign produce upon competition in the British market. 
Friday, August 28. 
2. Mr. G. F. SHove.—Various Interpretations of the Law of Diminishing 
Returns, with special reference to their bearing on the problem of 
Population. 
Various stages in which the ‘law of diminishing returns’ may be interpreted 
are distinguished, and their relevance to the problem of population is discussed with 
reference to the present position of Great Britain. In the course of this discussion 
(which occupies the greater part of the paper) stress is laid (i) upon the distinction 
between ‘marginal’ and ‘ aggregate,’ ‘ individual’ and ‘ social,’ costs of production, 
and between those senses of * diminishing return’ which do and those which do not 
imply an increasing supply-price for the commodities in question; (ii) upon the 
strictly limited significance to be attached to statistics showing changes in production 
per head or in the real ratio of international interchange ; (iii) upon the influence of 
changes in population on the volume of saying and the supply of other non-labour 
factors of production. The vulgar opinion that ‘if the law of diminishing returns 
is operative ’ a reduction in population increases, an increase in population diminishes, 
wealth per head—while the converse holds ‘ under conditions of increasing return ’— 
is shown to be valid only when it is interpreted and qualified in a way which deprives 
it” of practical importance. This conclusion is reinforced by the reflection that, 
particularly in a society in which property is unequally distributed, the effect of a given 
addition to numbers will be different according to the social class in which it occurs ; 
and by the probability that a change in the size of a population will alter its constitution 
(notably its age-distribution). 
3. Presidential Address by Miss Lynpa Grimr on The Meaning of 
Wages. (See page 101.) 
4. Mr. R. F. Harrop.—The Trade Cycle and the Theory of Distribution. 
The classical economists were notoriously inadequate in their treatment of the trade 
cycle. In their general doctrine no account was given of it. This deficiency was only 
part of a larger one, their failure to explain what determined the volume of production ; 
general over-production was held to be impossible. 
