UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1338 
Washington, D. C. 
August, 1925 
THE FAMILY LIVING FROM THE FARM 
Data from 30 Farming Localities in 21 States for the Years 1918 to 1922 
By H. W. Hawthorne, Associate Agricultural Economist, Bureau of Agricul- 
tural Economics 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Significance of family living from the farm. 1 
Localities studied 3 
The family living from the farm 6 
Years of prosperity and depression 11 
Cost of living of farm families 12 
The farm business 13 
Size of farm 19 
Size of family 21 
Page 
The farm business— Continued. 
Farm receipts 23 
Farm income 25 
Family income 26 
Labor income 26 
Value of the farmer's labor 27 
Tenure 27 
List of references 28 
SIGNIFICANCE OF FAMILY LIVING FROM THE FARM 
Above their cash income from the farm, farmers have other income 
in the form of food products which they set aside for consumption by 
their families, use oi houses for their shelter, and some fuel for use in 
their homes. In the aggregate these items, termed " the family living 
from the farm" in this bulletin, represent an appreciable part of the 
cost of living of farm families on the one hand and of the returns from 
the farm business on the other. 
Data from several thousand farms show that the value of the family 
living from the farm at farm prices was approximately one-third of 
the cost of living of farm families and two-thirds of the cost of food, 
fuel, and house rent. It was one-ninth as much as the farm receipts 
and one- third as much as the farm income. (See fig. 1.) Variations 
with localities, with annual production, with years of prosperity and 
depression, and with different families, accompany these approxima- 
tions and are presented in some of the following pages. Outstanding 
among the variations are those in years of agricultural prosperity 
and depression. In 1918 and 1919, years of agricultural prosperity, 
the value of the family living from the farm was only about one-fifth 
as much as the farm income; but in 1921 and 1922, years of agri- 
cultural depression, it was fully one-third as much. 
38143°— 25t— Bull. 1338 1 
