UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1277 
Washington, D. C. 
September 18, 1924 
INPUT AS RELATED TO OUTPUT IN FARM ORGANIZATION AND 
COST-OF-PRODUCTION STUDIES 
By H. R. Tolley, Agricultural Economist; J. D. Black, Consulting Specialist, 
and M. J. B. Ezekiel, Assistant Agricultural Economist, Bureau of Agri- 
cultural Economics 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Introduction 1 
Analyses 3 
Input variations 3 
Output per unit of input 16 
Applications 24 
The least-cost combination of 
inputs 24 
The most profitable combination 
of inputs 31 
The combination of enterprises _ 35 
Further applications 36 
Production standards 36 
Choice of farm practices 38 
Page 
Further applications — Continued. 
Planning a farm business 38 
Cost indices 39 
Elasticity of supply 40 
Statistical methods 40 
Proper theoretical analysis es- 
sential 40 
The nature of the problem 40 
Multiple correlation 41 
Curvilinear correlation 43 
Multiple curvilinear correlation. 44 
INTRODUCTION 
The success of the farm business may depend as much upon the 
details of the operation of the major enterprises as it does upon the 
combination of the enterprises. Farm-management investigations 
have placed much emphasis upon the combination of enterprises; 
whereas the adjustment of the details of each farm enterprise has 
received relatively little attention, largely because of the difficulties 
of the necessary economic and statistical analysis. The purpose of 
this bulletin is to present a method of studying the effect of varia- 
tions in details of farm practice upon the profitableness of the 
farm business. 
In any one region, farmers differ widely in the methods and 
practices which they use in handling specific farm enterprises. To 
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