218 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
gross negligence if he has no accurate idea of what his 
yearly outlay is for each particular crop. The fact is 
that a great majority of our farmers keep only meagre 
records of receipts and expenditure. Among them are 
to be occasionally found some who can give a reliable 
estimate of the cost of producing a crop, but in the vast 
majority of cases the pursuit of such information is 
fruitless. It is a matter for regret that some sound 
system of farming accounts has not been adopted by the 
farming community generally. 
The writer is well aware of the controversial nature 
of the problem of ‘‘Cost of Production’’ in relation to 
the wheat industry. The controversy which has led in 
recent times to an increasing number of public statements 
on the problem from a variety of sources, reveals all the 
faults and inconsistencies which characterise popular 
discussions on economic questions. Few, if any, of the 
participants in the discussion have attempted to envisage 
the problem at the outset, but most have chosen for their 
criticisms questions of minor importance, and even then 
they have not considered these in relation to the question 
as a whole. 
2. The Meaning of Cost of Production. 
It is necessary to state clearly what is meant by 
‘‘eost of production,’’ as the phrase will be used in 
this investigation. Professor Marshall defines cost of 
production of an article as follows:—‘‘The exertions of 
all the different kinds of labour that are directly or 
indirectly involved in making it, together with the 
abstinences, or rather the waitings required for saving 
the capital used in making it: all these efforts and 
sacrifices together will be called the real cost of pro- 
duetion of the commodity.’’* 
*Marshall’s ‘‘Principles of Economies.’’ Page 339. Sixth 
edition. 
