This paper discusses the problems encountered in constructing equivalence scales of the relative incomes required to enable families of different sizes or in different circumstances to enjoy the same standard of living. Theoretical problems and limitations of various methods are discussed, and examples of empirical results are presented.

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The usual form of retail price index implicitly gives each household a weight proportional to its total expenditure. An index of this form is appropriate, e.g, for deflating the total wage-bill. But the retail price index is more frequently used as a measure of price changes applying on average to a group of families or a class of wage-earners. For such purposes, it is appropriate to estimate the average change by using"democratic" weights, i.e. the same weight for every household, or weights proportional to equivalence scale values to reflect the needs of different-sized families.

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Proprietary broiler diets, containing added copper (125 mg/kg) as sulphate, were fed to broilers in 4 trials (32 pens each) over a one year period without a change of litter. Mould counts in the litter of pens containing birds fed the standard diets decreased to 2 X 10(3) propagules per g in trial 4. Those in the pens with birds fed the diets containing supplemental copper decreased to 6 X 10(2) propagules per g. Litter bacterial counts (10(7) organisms/g) were not affected by dietary copper. Litter copper concentrations in pens where the birds were fed supplemented diets increased significantly to more than 600 mg/kg in trial 4. Dietary copper sulphate addition significantly increased broiler weight gains at 7 weeks in trials 3 and 4 (P less than 0.05) and the efficiency of food utilisation was significantly improved in trial 4. The copper content of the chicks' livers remained unchanged. It is suggested that broiler performance may be independent of dietary copper content. Litter copper concentrations and litter microbial alterations may be important factors.

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