RELATION BETWEEN PAY AND STANDARD OF LIVING 19 
an attempt at mathematical measurement of the degree of diversity 
and is now rather generally discarded as an ineffective tool in 
analysis. Relations discovered through its use in connection with 
the study will undoubtedly prove to be of little or no significance. 
The other four of these factors, acres per farm, total farm capital, 
operator's working capital and cost of farm operations are rather 
generally accepted as measures of size or magnitude of the farm 
business. "Acres " is probably the most widely used of all these 
measures. The English acre of 43,560 square feet, which is in use 
in the United States, is a standard measure of size. Acreage data 
are easily obtained when other data are not available. But the acre 
is not always a complete measure of size since it fails to account for 
the intensity of farm operations caused by different locations and 
topographies. Similarly, capital invested in the farm, the farm 
equipment and livestock is not regarded as a definite measure of 
size of the farm business. As with acres, capital invested does not 
account for the intensity of farm operation, especially in truck 
farming in comparison with cattle raising. Of the two types of 
capital, total farm capital and operator's working capital, the 
former is here regarded as representing more closely the magnitude 
of the farm business since it includes all the resources at the com- 
mand of the operator. 
Cost of operation of the farm business is probably the best meas- 
ure of size since it takes into account all economic agencies entering 
into the farm operations during the year. In this measure of size 
all factors of production, whether land, labor, or capital, are given 
relative weights. More than any other measure of size here con- 
sidered cost of operation should reflect the capacity of the farmer 
as an economic producer. The cost of operation may fail to account 
for changes in land values or variations in price levels of labor and 
equipment over a series of years. This, however, is a matter of 
little significance for the year's time. 
The other factors or criteria here considered as indicative of the 
farmer's ability to pay, that is, net worth of the farmer, percentage 
of the net worth obtained as gratuitous wealth, percentage of net 
worth received from net increase in the value of land, the number 
of years since the farmer began his earning life, and the average 
annual rate of accumulation of wealth, refer directly or indirectly 
to the total net assets of the farm family. 
Net worth of the farmer, percentages that gratuitous wealth and 
net increase in the value of land are of net worth, the average an- 
nual rate of accumulation, and the number of years the farmer has 
been earning, are all more or less indicative of the capacity of the 
farm family to produce, to obtain wealth, and to save wealth through 
a series of years. Xet worth is largely the result of saving which 
has long been recognized by economists as having for its ultimate goal 
a higher standard of living properly balanced over life's span. Nor- 
mally man's desires for goods satisfying physical, mental, esthetic, 
and spiritual needs are so multifarious that when he is supplied with 
an accumulated store of economic purchasing power he is inclined 
to convert this power into satisfactions contributing to his standard 
of living. But it must be recognized that man's wants for goods 
contributing directly to the family living are constantly being bal- 
anced against other wants such as increased agencies of production, 
