34 BULLETIN 1214, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Expenditures for all purposes averaged $2,012. Of this, about 
one-third was provided without direct purchase. The farm furnished 
food materials worth on the average $399, or about 50 per cent of 
all food, fuel worth $59, or about 41 per cent of all fuel, and rent 
estimated at $234. Unpaid labor had an average value of $33 per 
family, and gifts of clothe? $4. 
Expenditures for food represented 39.5 per cent of those for all 
purposes. 
Clothing expenditures came to 13.8 per cent of the total. The val- 
ues were higher for males and females between about 16 and 24 years 
of age than for older men and women. 
The average value of the house was estimated at $2,340, and rent 
represented 11.6 per cent of all expenditures. In many houses not 
all the rooms were in use, but on the average there were 1.9 rooms of 
all kinds and 1 bedroom actually used per person. 
Water was piped into 19.8 per cent of the houses, and gas or electric 
light was found in 24.6 per cent, figures notably higher than the 
average for the United States according to the Census for 1920. 
The average value of house furnishings was estimated at $822. 
Fuel represents 7.1 per cent of all expenditures, and other operating 
expenses 6.2 per cent. 
The remaining items, which some workers frequently consider to- 
gether, come to 21.8 per cent of the total expenditures, or if operating 
expenses other than fuel are included, 28 per cent. As here subdi- 
vided, 4.1 per cent went to maintenance of health, 15.9 per cent to 
advancement, 1.2 per cent to personal, and 0. 6 per cent to unclassi- 
fied items. 
Formal education entailed expenditures equal to 1.8 per cent of 
those for all purposes. The extent of formal education received by 
operators and homemakers is roughly indicated as follows: In 45.8 
per cent of the families neither had remained in school beyond the 
eighth grade, in 21.9 per cent both had been through one or more 
years of high school, and in 2.5 per cent both had been through one 
or more years of college. In 30.3 per cent of the 165 families having 
children 18 years old or older, at least 1 child had finished the high 
school; in 29.4 per cent of the 92 families having children 23 years or 
older, at least 1 child had been to college for 1 year or more. . 
Contributions to church organizations made up 2 per cent of all 
expenditures. The average attendance of adults at church, Sunday 
school, and other religious services was 30 times a year. 
The largest expenditure under advancement is attributed to the 
cost of operating and repairing the automobile for family and house- 
hold use, which was 3.2 per cent of all expenditures. Automobiles 
were owned in 75.6 per cent of the 402 families, and the corresponding 
figure for New York State in the United States Census for 1920 was — 
35.2 per cent. The average expense per car in the present study was 
found to be $86 for the year. 
Savings in the form of life insurance represented 2.1 per cent of all 
expenditures. 
When the results from the present study are compared with other 
available data, the assumption is justified that the area studied repre- 
sents conditions above the average, whether this is measured by the 
