FAMILY LIVING IN FARM HOMES. 5 
the proportion spent for advancement may be taken as a criterion 
of the standard of living. This belief is more or less common even 
in this country, though it is based in part on conditions that have 
never been recognized as A ae here, and though economists are 
' coming more and more to the opinion that in order to judge the 
_ character of living conditions they must know not only what the 
_ living costs, but also the nature of the goods bought. It is impossible, 
_ for example, to judge how well a family is nourished simply by 
_ knowing that it spends so many dollars a year for food, because 
' price does not necessarily indicate nutritive value. Some idea of 
' the kinds and quantities of food materials used is needed before one 
' ean tell whether this family is obtaining the nutrients and energy 
- now recognized as necessary for health and well-being. 
a Such reliable information as there is regarding the standard of 
_ living in the United States has been gathered almost exclusively 
among town dwellers and the families of industrial workers. These 
urban findings can not be applied to farm conditions. The economics 
of the farm family usually differs from that of the city family in an 
important respect; namely, that a considerable proportion of the 
_ farm family’s care is supplied by the farm whereas the city family 
_ pays for everything out of its money income. 
_ By estimating the market value of food materials and fuel supplied 
by the farm, figures somewhat more comparable with those of the 
_ city household can be obtained, but there still remains the fact that 
- the farmhouse is an integral part of the farm property and that its 
' rental value is difficult to estimate separately. Moreover, the whole 
_ scheme of farm life and interests is so different from that of the city, 
and the major satisfactions of each manner of life often come from 
such different sources that it is unfair to compare expenditures for 
urban and rural living, item by item. 
A farm family’s accounts, for example, might show less money 
_ spent for travel or clothing than those of a city family; but if the 
| Betferonce were due to the fact that the farm had acquired purebred 
~ livestock in which all the family took exceptional pride and that 
_ they already dressed as well as their friends and neighbors, it would 
not mean that they found life less satisfactory on the whole or that 
_ they were less valuable members of society. In other words, both 
‘the cost and the standard of living among farm families are probably 
different from what they are among city families, but no one can say 
to what extent or in what respects they differ until more accurate 
_ information has been gathered. 
The present study was undertaken with such considerations in 
“mind. One purpose was to obtain information regarding the cost 
~ and other conditions of living actually prevailing among farm families 
“in the area studied. It is realized that many more areas must be 
studied before safe deductions can be made as to conditions among 
farm families in general, and this investigation is therefore regardec 
as a first contribution to what it is hoped will prove a considerable 
series of such studies made in many parts of the country. Conse- 
quently, another purpose was to develop a method of procedure by 
Means of which directly comparable results can be obtained by 
different investigators in different regions. 
__ It is hoped that the information gained can be used to test the 
theory that expenditures for advancement are an index to the 
