discernible a rhythmic regularity like that of the process of the
seasons, or the ebb and flow of the tide. This is not an elegance to
be admired. Furthermore, in so far as the order comprises adjustments
and tendencies which are beneficial (as, indeed, is mainly true),
there is no warrant for assuming that these are either adequate to
secure a prosperous community or dependent upon the social
arrangements which happen to exist. Let us, therefore, refrain from
premature polemics and examine in a spirit of detachment some further
aspects of the elaborate, but yet unorganized, cooperation of which so
much has been already said.


§4. _Some Reflections upon Joint Products_. A quite inadequate idea of
the complexity of this coöperation is obtained by dwelling on the
numbers of people who participate in it, or the immense distances over
which it extends. The deficiency can be partially supplied by
referring to some of the more obvious of the many subtle
interconnections which exist between different commodities and
different trades.

There are innumerable groups of commodities (which it is customary to
term "joint products") such that the production of one commodity
belonging to the group necessarily implies or very greatly facilitates
the production of the others. Wool and mutton; beef and hides; cotton
and cotton-seed are a few familiar illustrations. The important
feature of these "joint products" is the fairly precise relation which
must exist between the quantities in which the different products are
supplied. If you plant a certain crop of cotton, it will yield you so
much cotton lint and so much cotton-seed. You can, of course, if you
choose, throw away part of the seed, as indeed at one time planters