8 BULLETIN 1466, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
ber, averaged $14,035 in value, in comparison with $13,059 for 455 
tenant farms. As with acres, values of farms worked by hired men 
were not included in this tabulation. 
COMPOSITION OF FAMILIES AND HOUSEHOLDS 
To avoid as much as possible the variations due to differences in 
the make-up of families or households, the study was limited to 
such families as had an adult man operating the farm and an adult 
woman as home maker. In most cases, operator and home maker 
were man and wife; but in some cases the husband was dead and 
an adult son, brother, or nephew operated the farm. Similarly, in 
some cases the wife was dead and an adult daughter, sister, or niece 
acted as home maker. There were also a few cases in which a farm 
owned or rented jointly by several brothers and sisters was operated 
by one of the brothers, while a sister acted as home maker. A few 
of the households included, in addition to the immediate family 
of the operator, another family related by marriage. 
The " household," as here used, means all the persons sheltered 
in one dwelling and fed, usually, at a common table. The " family " 
includes parents and the sons and daughters who are at home or who, 
while away at school or elsewhere, are supported from the family 
purse. The household may include relatives, hired help, boarders, 
and others, in addition to the family. Relatives and others are taken 
into account in all costs when supported from a common income. 
When not supported from a common income, they are excluded under 
all except food and rental costs. 
ADEQUACY OF THE FAMILY AS A UNIT OF COMPARISON 
In most standard-of -living studies made in the past, neither house- 
hold nor family, when as variable in make-up as the farm family, 
has been regarded as a satisfactory unit of comparison. The family 
has been pointed out as failing to take account of the fact that the 
number, sex, and age of individuals composing it make a difference in 
the needs for food, rent, clothes, and other economic goods. The 
term " family " makes no allowance for certain first costs, such as 
rental charge for use of the house, which must be borne by all families 
or households of two members. These first costs differ for the prin- 
cipal groups of economic goods, as do the relative demands made 
against them by the first, second, third, fourth, or other additional 
member of the family. 
The widest variations due to varying composition of the family 
or household have been avoided in some standard-of -living studies 
by selecting the " standard " family ; that is, the family consisting 
of husband, wife, and three children, the sex and age varying some- 
what with the different investigators. This plan has received less 
consideration than have efforts to reduce families of varying com- 
position to a common unit of comparison. The per capita unit, 
the adult-equivalent, the adult-male-equivalent, the ammain, 2 and 
the cost-consumption unit represent some of these efforts. 
2 Derived from the term "adult male maintenance." A method of classifying families 
according to incomes in studies of disease prevalence, by E. Sydenstricker and W. I. King, 
U. S. Treasury Dept., Public Health Reports, Vol. 35, No. 48, pp. 2829-2646. 1920. 
