20 
BULLETIN 1404, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Indications that the children of the best owner accumulators 
enjoyed superior school advantages, however, are found in the 
considerably lower average ages of their children in the first to 
fourth grades, inclusive, and in the fifth to eighth grades. The data 
for tenant accumulators are less conclusive. For the first to fourth 
grades the average age of children of best accumulators is lowest, but 
this is not the case for children in the fifth to eighth grades. 
Among the families interviewed there were no children of school 
age who were beyond the eighth grade. Of the total number of 
children of school age (Table 17), 707 in all, 403 were reported as 
being in the first four grades, and 304 in the fifth to eighth grades 
inclusive. The average age of tenant children in the first four 
grades was 10.9 years as compared with 10.4 for the average age 
of children of owners. Pupils in the fifth to eighth grades, inclusive, 
were 16.6 years of age in the case of children of tenants, and 16.3 
years in the case of children of owners. Thus it will be seen that 
the children of tenants were slightly retarded in average grade at- 
tained by a given age as compared with children of owners, but that 
the difference was very slight. 
Table 17. — Average age of pupils in two groups of grades, classified by tenure 
of father 
Tenure class of father 
Pupils in Grades I 
to IV, inclusive 
Pupils in Grades V 
to VIII, inclusive l 
Total 
Average 
age 
Total 
Average 
age 
Tenants . ... _. 
Number 
200 
203 
Years 
10.9 
10.4 
Number 
125 
179 
Years 
16.6 
Owners 
16.$ 
403 10. 7 
304 
16.5 
1 No children were reported to be above Grade VIII. 
STANDARDS OF LIVING OF FARM FAMILIES 
For both tenants and owners the average value of family living 
obtained from the farm was higher for the best class of accumulators 
than for the medium class, and likewise, higher for the medium class 
than for the poorest class. (Table 18.) This is not conclusive 
evidence that obtaining a large amount of family living from the 
farm will result in every farmer thereby having greater accumula- 
tions of wealth, but the presumption that this is favorable to accu- 
mulation seems to be warranted for two reasons: (1) A great deal 
of the food and fuel consumed may represent products otherwise 
wasted, and (2) much of it may represent spare-time labor which 
would otherwise be idle. Good managers usually develop these 
seemingly unimportant sources of income. 
It is interesting that the average amounts in the value of groceries 
purchased for the several classes vary much less than do the average 
values of all family living obtained from the farm. All classes of 
accumulators except the best owners spent between $73 and $91 
per year on the average for groceries; the best accumulators among 
owners spent an average of $130, an amount considerably above that 
of the other classes. Other surveys similar to this have shown that 
