13 
as could be determined rental charges represent the actual value of 
the house for family living purposes regardless of what the house 
adds to the selling price of the farm. 
Expenditures for furniture and furnishings represent the costs 
of articles purchased, and the cost of repairs on articles owned, 
during the year of study. Yearly depreciation on furnishings and 
equipment in the home are not taken into account. 
Depreciation on the automobile is charged at 25, 15, 12, 12, 12, 12, 
and 12 per cent of the purchase price according to the number of 
years the car had been used, as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or more, at the time 
the schedules were taken, in order to avoid the task of placing an 
arbitrary value on the automobile, in each instance. This plan ap- 
proximates the use of 15 per cent of an arbitrary value of the car 
for the year of study. Proportion of the total operation cost of the 
automobile for household use was estimated when the data were 
obtained. 
Expenditures for life and health-insurance premiums were re- 
garded by many persons interviewed as a type of savings. In some 
instances data were obtained on other types of savings, but too few 
cases of such savings were reported to give significant average. 
There was confusion among the different investigators and the dif- 
ferent people giving the information as to what properly constitutes 
savings. Some thought that money put back into the farm business 
or into permanent improvements on the house should be classed as 
savings. Others thought that payments on debts contracted during 
years preceding the year of study might be regarded as savings. 
These different opinions of what savings should include appeared to 
be reflected in the estimates reported for savings. Consequently, the 
data available seemed too vague of definite meaning for tabulation. 
VALUES OF GOODS USED 
The average value of all goods used and the distribution of this 
value among the principal groups of goods, furnished by the farm 
and purchased, are given in Table 1. The distribution of the total 
value among the different groups of goods is shown most effectively 
in percentages that the values for these groups are of the total value 
of all goods. The average values of all goods furnished by the farm 
and purchased are designated also in percentages that these values 
are of the average value of all goods used. Similarly, the values of 
food and of fuel furnished by the farm and purchased are shown in 
percentages that these values are of the average value of all food 
and of all fuel used in the household. Because of lack of space, com- 
parisons made throughout the bulletin are limited to the three 
groups of States designated as New England, Southern, and North 
Central. Comparisons by States may be made from Table 1. 
TOTAL VALUE OF ALL GOODS 
The average value of all goods for all tenures of all States appears 
to be $1,597.50 per family of 4.4 persons. (Table 1.) This average 
is approximately $100 lower than the average for the 317 families of 
the New England States, $1,692.20, and slightly lower than the 
average for the 1,439 families of the North Central States, $1,613.20. 
