NEW VALUATION OF UNBUILT ON LAND 



129 



On the other hand, in those departments in which there has been the 

 largest increase in the area of uncultivated land in the last sixty years, in 

 Hautes-Alpes, Ardeche, Ariege, Dordogne, Drome, lyot and Pyrenees-Orien- 

 tales, it is due to the depopulation of the country districts, where the in- 

 creasing cost of labour has led to the desertion of holdings of inferior 

 quahty, or to the phylloxera, after the devastations of which a large 

 number of vineyards have been left uncultivated. 



In some departments, however, as in Doubs, Mayenne, Marne and 

 Puy-de Dome, the difference between the results of 185 1 and 1908 is part- 

 ly due to the classification of some moorland in different classes at each 

 successive valuation. The same is true in the case of Savoie and Haute- 

 Savoie. We shall make special mention of Corsica, where since 1879 the 

 area of uncultivated land has increased almost threefold owing to the 

 increasing abandonment of agriculture in this department. 



§ 4. Comparison of rental value and market price. 



ist. Total Rental Value and Market Price of all the Holdings and of Each 

 Type of Farms. — For the whole of France the successive valuations in 185 1, 

 1879 and 1908 were as follows : 



Date of Valuation 



Rental Value 



Market Price 



frs. 



1851 

 1879 

 1908 



1,824,186,249 

 2,645,505,565 

 2,056,949,814 



61,189,030,452 

 91,583,966,075 

 61,757,233,533 



As we said when dealing with the areas, the results of the valuation 

 of 185 1 do not include information concerning the departments of Alpes- 

 Maritimes, Corsica, Savoie and Haute-Savoie. • It is, therefore, necessary 

 when comparing these results with those of the later valuations, to leave 

 these four departments out of consideration. The following table, in which 

 the rental values and market prices are given for the three dates in question, 

 has been drawn up with due regard to this point. 



