4 BULLETIN 1214, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
standard of living and possibly also to discover whether other 
expenditures for special purposes furnish such an index. Another 
hope is that, by taking records of the quantity as well as the cost of 
the goods consumed, something Hay He learned of the quality of 
the living. An attempt has also been made to devise some means 
of reducing families of different make-up to a common basis on 
which their expenditures for various needs may be justly compared— 
something sothape similar to the per-man-per-day basis familiar in 
dietary studies (p. 20). 
GENERAL PLAN. 
{ 
The study here reported was carried on cooperatively by the- 
United States Department of Agriculture and the New York State — 
College of Agriculture at Cael University... The Department of 
Agriculture was represented by the Division of Farm Population and — 
Rural Life, of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and by the 
former Office of Home Economics; the New York State College of © 
Agriculture, by the Department of Rural Social Organization. | 
The schedule was planned to show the following items: Age, sex, — 
and occupation of the members of the family and the household; — 
quantities and value of food, fuel, and other materials furnished dur-_ 
ing the preceding 12 months by the farm; cost and quantity of ma- 
terials purchased during the preceding 12 months for food, fuel, 
household. equipment, and supplies, and clothing for the various 
members of the family; expenditures for household labor, education, 
recreation, travel, social and religious contacts, and minor personal 
and miscellaneous needs. The scheaule also included space for data 
on the nativity and education of the operator and home maker in . 
each family; on the general character of the house, including its 
surroundings, equipment, and furnishing; on the unpaid labor given — 
to home activities by various members of the household; and on the © 
relations of the family to community interests. It was not expected — 
that ail these items would prove of statistical value, but in this some- — 
what preliminary study it seemed safer to include too much than too — 
little. Data regarding the farm business were not provided for on — 
the schedule because these had already been collected (p. 5). 
Although only a minority of the farmers kept farm accounts, and an — 
even smaller number of the housekeepers kept household accounts, 
they were nearly all able to give approximate estimates readily, and it 
is believed that the figures secured are sufficiently accurate for the 
present purpose. In talking with the home maker the investigator 
went over the list of expenditures item by item, esking for the aver- 
age price of each per piece, dozen, pound, or bushel, as the case might — 
be. The materials furnished by the farm, which included meat, 
dairy products, flour, meal, potatoes, and other vegetables, fruits, — 
and fuel, were valued at the price that would have been received had — 
they been sold. Prices given by the home makers were checked up — 
by those current in the stores in which the families did most of their . 
a 
trading. The data obtained in this way represent 402 families and 
cover the year ending September 1, 1921. 
1 Acknowledgment is due to the farm families of Livingston County who generously gave their time in 
supplying data, and also to those who assisted in the field work: Mrs. Melissa Farrell Snyder, Miss Eva M. — 
Harker, and Mrs. Grace M. Sse ito @ 
Data from this study have also been used in Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station ~ 
Bul. 423: The Standard of Life in a Typical Section of Diversified Farming, by E. L. Kirkpatrick, 1923. — 
