4 BULLETIN 1466, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The method here used of summarizing and analyzing the economic 
goods of family living follows as closely as possible that used in 
studies of the standard of living among other groups of workers. 
Comparisons made with families of town dwellers or of industrial 
workers are for the purpose of checking the method of study as well 
as for the purpose of comparing the welfare of the two groups of 
people in so far as this is possible. 
Comparisons of the welfare of farm families must not be made 
irrationally and inferences or conclusions as to which fares the better 
must not be drawn hastily. Urban findings can not be applied to 
farm conditions, and vice versa. The plan or scheme of farm life 
differs from that of the city. The major satisfactions of farm life 
come from very different sources and may be much less dependent 
on money $ian those of urban life. Farmers often derive no small 
amount of satisfaction from an interest and a pride in purebred live- 
stock which they keep or in high-yielding strains of choice grains 
or fruits which they are trying to develop. Farm women frequently 
get real pleasure from showing and from serving to friends home- 
grown and home-preserved fruit and vegetable products, and the 
care of the garden is often a pleasure. Farm boys and girls have an 
opportunity for apprenticeship unequaled in any other trade or 
occupation. The whole scheme of farm life and farm interests must 
be kept in mind when inferences or conclusions are being drawn from 
comparisons of expenditures, on the whole or item by item for farm 
and city families. 
EXPLANATION OF THE STUDY 
SCOPE 
This bulletin presents the combined results of a number of separate 
studies carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture 
in cooperation with 12 colleges or universities. 1 The schedule used 
for gathering the data was prepared by the Bureau of Agricultural 
Economics and the Bureau of Home Economics, United States 
Department of Agriculture. 
The schedule was planned to show the following items: Tenure; 
acres per farm and value of land per acre; sex, age, and schooling 
of the members of the family and household; quantities and value 
of food, fuel, and other materials furnished during the year just 
preceding the date of visit by the field worker ; quantities and costs 
of food, fuel, furniture and furnishings, household supplies, and 
household labor purchased during the preceding year; clothing 
purchased for the various members of the family; expenditures for 
1 Divisions or departments in the colleges and universities cooperating with the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture in the separate units of this study are the Department of Agricultural 
Economics and Rural Sociology, Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts : 
the Department of Economics and Sociology and the Agricultural Extension Service, Kan- 
sas State Agricultural College ; the Department of Sociology, Ohio Wesleyan University ; 
the Department of Farm Economics, University of Kentucky ; the Agricultural Extension 
Service, University of Missouri ; the Department of Psychology and Sociology, Alabama 
Woman's College ; the Agricultural Extension Service, Alabama Polytechnic Institute ; the 
Extension Service, Winthorp College, South Carolina ; the Agricultural Extension Service, 
Connecticut Agricultural College ; the Agricultural Extension Service, Massachusetts 
Agricultural College ; the Agricultural Extension Service, University of New Hampshire ; 
and the Agricultural Extension Service, University of Vermont. The Vermont unit of 
study was made by the Bureau of Home Economics, United States 1 Department of 
Agriculture., 
