46 BULLETIN 1466, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
families in which the schooling of the home makers exceeds that of 
the operators show somewhat higher average values of all goods used. 
Because of the small numbers of families, this indication of a higher 
level of living among families in which the home makers excel in 
grades of schooling can not be traced effectively through the distribu- 
tion of the value of goods among the principal groups of goods used. 
To pursue further the indication of a probably closer relationship 
of the schooling of the home maker than of the operator to the value 
of goods used, all records were classified according to the grade of 
schooling reported for the home maker regardless of the grade 
reported for the operator into 10 groups. The 10 groups starting 
with the fourth grade extended through the twelfth grade to more 
than 12 grades. The average values of all goods and the principal 
groups of these goods as shown in Table 14 were determined, and 
the percentages that the values of the different groups of goods form 
of the value of all goods were ascertained. Again, the records were 
grouped according to the grade of schooling reported for the oper- 
ator regardless of the grade reported for the home maker and similar 
averages and percentages were ascertained. 
From this analysis, schooling of the home maker is apparently 
somewhat more closely related to the level of living — measured in 
terms of values of all goods used and the distribution of this value 
among the principal groups of goods — than is schooling of the 
operator. The increase in the average of all family living by similar 
groups is slightly more pronounced with the families classified by 
schooling of the home maker. The decrease in the percentage 
that the average value of food forms of the average value of all 
goods and the increase in the percentages that the values of ad- 
vancement goods and all other goods form of the average values 
of all goods used, are a bit more marked with families classified 
in this way. 
Reductions in the average size of family with higher grades of 
schooling are about the same in both cases, from about 4.9 persons 
to about 4 persons per family. 
Further study and analysis are needed to prove conclusively that 
formal schooling of the homemaker exerts a greater influence than 
does formal schooling of the farm operator on the farmer's standard 
of living. Counterinfiuences of the different amounts of schooling of 
the operator upon farm business resources and consequently on the 
ability to provide must be accounted for. The relation of continued 
education of both the operator and the home maker should be de- 
termined. Finally the bearing of the formal schooling of the chil- 
dren, in those families supporting different numbers of children, 
must be given consideration. 
ISOLATION 
With the present facilities for transportation and other means of 
communication, it is impossible to find any satisfactory measure of 
isolation of the farm family. Use of the automobile, on hard-sur- 
faced roads in many instances, is constantly increasing the social con- 
tacts of the farm family and rendering miles a less complete measure 
of distance. The telephone and the radio are gradually breaking 
down the barriers to communication and making physical distances 
less satisfactory indexes of isolation. Granting all this, it is deemed 
