42 
BULLETIN 1400, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Theoretically, there is no more reason why the farmer's dwelling 
house should be counted a part of the farming business than for 
the banker's house to be counted a part of banking or the merchant's 
house a part of marketing — it has been so included previously largely 
as a matter of accounting convenience. For this reason the charges 
for the use of land in the study reported in this bulletin have been 
Fig 
A vacant dwelling and an abandoned tenant house, both of solid stone construction. 
With larger farms and more machinery, not so many houses are needed as in 1800 
made as if the farmer's dwelling were on one side of a road and his 
farm and outbuildings on the other, witli an entirely separate set of 
accounts for his farm business and his domestic affairs. The use of 
the farm dwelling has thus been excluded from the statement of 
"farm products," and the expenses connected with it have likewise 
been excluded from "farm expenses." 17 
17 For a fuller statement of the theoretical basis of the "operator's earnings" method of measuring 
farmers' incomes for farm management studies, see (9). For statistical comparison of the adequacy of 
the "operator's earnings" and "labor income" methods, see (7). 
