THE FARMER'S STANDARD OF LIVING 5 
the maintenance of health, education, reading matter, recreation, 
travel, religious and social contacts, and for personal and miscel- 
laneous needs; the value and the general character of the house, 
including its equipment and furnishings ; and the use of time by the 
operator and the home maker. 
The information obtained was usually given by the home maker, 
sometimes with help from the operator or from an adult son or 
daughter. Although only a few of the home makers kept household 
accounts nearly all were able to give approximate estimates readily 
and the figures obtained are regarded as sufficiently accurate for the 
present purpose. 
In talking with the home maker, the investigator went over the 
quantities of goods used, item by item, asking for the prices of each 
per piece, per pound, per dozen, or per bushel. Prices given by the 
home makers were checked with those current in the stores where the 
families did most of their trading and again with those reported by 
this bureau. 
The field work for the separate units of study was done by ad- 
vanced students or teachers of rural sociology, agricultural economics, 
or home economics, or by county home demonstration agents selected 
by the college or university cooperating. For most of these units 
of study the field workers were met by a representative of the De- 
partment of Agriculture at a central point within the State, usually 
at the State college or university, for a two-days' school of instruction 
in the methods of schedule taking. Through this interchange of 
experiences, the investigators were able to obtain more representative 
estimates with less difficulty than they might have obtained other- 
wise. 
For example, an investigator of one of the first units of study 
soon learned that the home maker who could not recall the number 
of pounds of coffee used during the preceding year could tell readily 
how many weeks or days 1 pound of coffee lasted the family. An- 
other investigator observed that purchases of articles of clothing 
for general wear, that is, work shoes, aprons, overalls, etc., were likely 
to be overlooked if not enumerated. These and other suggestions 
for obtaining the data and for checking the schedules for accuracy 
and omissions were made available to all the investigators through 
the two-days' instruction or training. Xotwithstanding this train- 
ing given to the investigators, approximately 5 per cent of schedules 
obtained were discarded from the tabulation because of omissions 
or apparent inaccuracies. 
Data from the different localities were tabulated by the de- 
partment in such way that the results from each separate unit of 
study make a definite contribution to the data already accumulated. 
Thus, comparisons between the different localities and the different 
States were made possible. Some of the results of the initial tabu- 
lations by the department have been made available through a series 
of preliminary reports on living conditions and family living in 
farm homes of selected localities. 
Additional tabulations have been made and reports are being 
prepared by the institution cooperating in the collection of data in 
several cases. These tabulations will result in the publication of 
reports or bulletins by the respective State colleges or universities. 
