FAMILY LIVING IN FARM HOMES. 35 
total value of the goods consumed, by facilities and comforts provided, 
or by the importance placed on the less material and essential goods. 
Since diversity in number, age, sex, and occupation of members 
makes the family an unsatisfactory basis of comparison in studies of 
family consumption, an attempt was made to devise scales by which 
families of various make-up can be reduced to common units of com- 
parison. In the case of food, the scale of dietary factors published by 
the United States Department of Agriculture was taken as a basis: 
with each of the other classes of goods the records of the Livingston 
County families were examined to find the ratio between expenditures 
for individuals of different age, sex, and occupation. The expenditure 
per adult male was taken as unity, and the weightings allowed for 
other individuals were stated in decimals. 
The sum of the ratios or factors representing all members of the 
family or household was termed the household-size index.. By divid- 
ing the expenditure for any item by this index, a figure was obtained 
which was termed the expenditure per cost-consumption unit for that 
item. Thesum of the expenditures per cost-consumption unit for the 
various items was used as the basis of comparison between families or 
groups of families. These scales are far from accurate; but it is hoped 
that, by checking up the weightings or ratios as more studies accumu- 
late and also by employing statistical methods for eliminating errors, 
they can gradually be perfected as a means of comparing the cost of 
different goods among various families. 
_ Expenditures per cost-consumption unit were caiculated for the 
eas study, and used in correlations which may be summarized as 
ollows: 
The expenditures per cost-consumption unit and the proportion 
devoted to advancement both increase fairly regularly with the size 
of the farm business as measured in terms of acres operated, capital 
_ invested, and labor employed, and with the value of the house and its 
furnishings. They also increase with the extent of formal education 
received by operators and homemakers and even more markedly 
_ with th® education received by children. They increase less markedly 
with contributions to church organizations and church attendance. 
In other words, this method of measuring family expenditures sug- 
gests that, while the standard of living rises with the size of the farm 
business and the value of the house and furnishings, the education 
_ enjoyed by the members of the family has a more marked effect, es- 
pecially the education of the children. 
