16 BULLETIN 1214, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
) TABLE 5.—Average annual expenditures for certain items of advancement in 402 farm 
) families in Livingston County, N. Y. f 
Owner families Tenant families +): 
(295). (107). All families (402). 
| 
{ Propor- Propor- Propor- 
Amount.|} tionof |Amount.} tion of | Amount.| tion of 
total. total. | total. 
Dollars. | Per cent. | Dollars. | Per cent. | Dollars. | Per cent. 
; 36 
Worm GOUCATION Yo... er ee 39 2.0 29 1.4 3 1.8 
menue matter. -c2s.0 2 Ses oe sgt we 14 7 13 6 14 oi 
Contributions to church organizations... ..- 45 2.3 28 1.3 40 2.0 
PmMppELeMMIMeNtS. 25 aks SS dso dee aoe 11 5 16 .8 13 .6 
Cost of operating and repairing automobile. 64 | 3. 2 67 3.2 65 3. 2 
i PMTCT UNV Gle es Re ce Soe ee 13 6 11 ~5 1 6 
Among the items of advancement especially tabulated, the largest 
} is the cost of operating and repairing the automobile. This averages 
| $65 a year, or 3.2 per cent of all expenditures. Cars were owned by 
304, or 75.6 per cent, of the 402 families, and the annual expense per 
car was $86. Automobiles are among the farm facilities listed by 
| the United States Census for 19201'° and are reported for 35.2 per 
| cent of all farms in New York State and throughout the Middle 
| Atlantic division. The percentage for Nebraska exactly equals that 
1 for the Livingston County farms, and Iowa is not far behind with 
73.1 per cent. These States are far above the average of 30.7 per 
cent for the United States. 
Next to the expenditure for automobiles the largest item under 
advancement is contributions to church organizations, which average 
$40 a family, or 2 per cent of the total expenditures. Of interest 
in this connection may be the fact that the average church attend- 
ance for all adults in the 402 families was estimated at 30 times a 
year, including Sunday and week-day services. 
The third largest item is the cost of formal education, which includes 
tuition, books, and board, lodging, and travel incurred in connection 
with attendance at school or college. These amount to $36, or 1.8 
per cent of all expenditures. 
The item entertainments includes chiefly admissions to chautauqua, 
lyceum, or lecture courses, moving-picture theaters, and church 
or community bazaars, fairs, socials, and suppers. These represent 
only a part of the recreational activities of country life, most of 
which are connected with the school, church, grange, or other local 
organization. The average expenditure for entertainments was $13, 
or 0.6 per cent of the total. 
A detailed study of the expenditures for advancement showed no 
significant differences between owner and tenant families and no 
apparent difference in the amounts spent for males and females. 
Age, however, had considerable effect in the amount spent per 
pipers Children under 6 seemed not to add to the amount spent 
or this group of items, but that spent for each child under 15 was 
about four-fifths and that for children between 15 and 20 about 
one and one-fifth of the amount spent for an adult. 
16 Selected Farm Expenses, Cooperation, and Farm Facilities. W. L. Austin. U.S. Dept.Com., Bur. 
Census, 14th Census Repts., Vol. 5, pp. 512-514. 1923, 
