THE CONDITIONS OF RURAT. LIFE IN igi 3-914 6^ 



masculine sex is notably predominant among the total number of emigrants, 

 3,584 persons, or slightly more than half the total number, were born in 

 the commune they left ; 2,333 in another commune of the same department ; 

 and 1,628 in another department. Of the 2,003 emigrants in the agricul- 

 tural group 1,063 ^r 53 pci" cent, left their native communes. This per- 

 centage is lower in the groups of other trades. 



It has been possible to classify 7,147 emigrants in accordance with their 

 new addresses, those of 398 not being known. It is found that more than 

 half (56.5 per cent.) of these person have settled in another rural commime, 

 most of them — more than four-fifths — in the same department. A very 

 small fraction, 3.6 per cent., have gone abroad, and the others — two fifths 

 of the total number — have settled in towns. The proportion of emigrants 

 who have transferred their residence to another rural commune is parti- 

 cularly high among cultivators — 61. i per cent. They are principally 

 tenant farmers, metayers and agricultural labourers, but include a few land- 

 owning farmers who have sold their property to buy another and more ex- 

 tensive one in a district where the price of land is lower. The highest per- 

 centage of persons who have gone abroad, namely 5.5 per cent., is also 

 foimd in the agricultural group. Outside the department of Seine the agri- 

 culturists who have settled in towns represent 24.8 per cent., within that 

 department 8.6 per cent. 



The enquiry also sought to determine the changes in the trades of 

 emigrants which followed on their displacement. In the case of 448 per- 

 sons no information could be obtained on this point. Of the 7.097 others 

 the majority of the group having no trade remained thus. The figures 

 referring to the agricultural group are as follows : 



Have kept their old trades 



Follow another trade in the same g^oup .... 



Have changed their trade-group 



Have no trade 



1,938 loo.o 



When these modifications were compared with those appearing in 

 other trade groups it was found that persons belonging to the agricultural 

 group have changed their trade most frequently. More than two fifths 

 of them have adopted new trades having no connection with agriculture. 



b) Emigration according to Regions. 



Out of the totality of 429 districts observed, which have 344,636 in- 

 habitants, it has been found that 7,545 persons left in the three years con- 

 sidered, or 219 per 10,000 inhabitants. This proportion varies, however, 

 with regions : in Region IV (South) it is 151 per 10,000, in Region VI 

 (Central Massif) 446. From the point of view of depopulation it is not this 

 proportion which should be considered, but that which refers only to emi- 



