This bulletin reports the results of a survey of farm family preferences and activities as they relate to housing needs, carried on as a cooperative regional project by the agricultural experiment stations in 12 North Central states and the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics of the United States Department of Agriculture. A sample survey of nearly 900 households, made in the spring of 1948, provides a basis for making reliable estimates of the housing needs and preferences of the 2,270,000 households in the open-country portion of the North Central region.

The information obtained about preferences-about what proportion of all the farm families want one-story houses, or basements, or dining rooms, for instance-can guide architects and engineers in planning houses for farm families.

Information about the activities of farm families is needed both by those who plan farmhouses and by research workers who want to determine, by laboratory studies, the amount and kind of space needed for the things farm families actually do in their houses. With the facts obtained in this survey as a foundation for their laboratory studies, research workers can develop recommendations on space requirements for the use of engineers and architects.