134 FRANCE - MISCELLANEOUS 



of whicli best indicates the price of farms. In fact, there were increases in 

 rental value in all the departments except 3, and in market price in all 

 except 9 ; and the diminutions in these cases were trifling. Between 1879 

 and 1908, there was an almost general decrease, since there were only 20 

 departments in which the rental value showed a rise and only 14 in which 

 the market price had risen. 



The averages are in many cases higher than in 185 1, above all the aver- 

 ages for the rental value. It is incontestable, in fact, that, in spite of 

 the increasing cost of labour, arable land has become, in many regions, more 

 remunerative within the last sixty years, owing to improved methods of 

 cultivation, the use of agricultural machinery and chemical manure, the 

 formation of artifical meadows, increased means of transport etc. 



The effects of the above causes in the way of increasing values have been 

 especially evident in the West and Centre of France and in the Basses- 

 Pyrenees. The extended cultivation of industrial crops in Nord and the digg- 

 ing of important irrigating canals in Bouches-du- Rhone have also led to a 

 similar increase in rental value and market price in these departments since 

 185 1. I<et us also mention the important increase in average value in Al- 

 pes-Maritimes, since 1879, due to the extensive cultivation of flowers. 

 But these increases are not due only to the causes just enumerated ; they 

 have been influenced by the fact that this group of areas includes yards, 

 building lots and pleasure grounds, which were previously valued in the 

 same way as arable land, but, in 1908, their real value, which is far higher, 

 was assigned to them. This has more especial reference to departments in 

 which there are large towns or large industrial centres, like Nord and Rhone or 

 important health resorts or watering places, like Alpes-Maritimes and Var. 



Together with the increases on the figures for 185 1 of which we have 

 just spoken, we find decreases in a certain number of departments, either 

 because in them the rural exodus was more marked than elsewere, or the 

 methods of farming were still antiquated, or the natural poverty of the soil 

 made it very difficult for the farmer to meet the increasing cost of cultiv- 

 ation or face the rise in wages. Sometimes the diminution is due to purely 

 local causes, for example the sugar crisis in Aisne and the utilisation of 

 the best arable land for the more remunerative cultivation of vineyards in 

 Herault. 



Altogether the decreases in rental value are comparativelj'^ unimport- 

 ant; if the decreases in market price are more appreciable it is due to the 

 reasons of general character already given. 



(c) Meadows and Grass Land. — As is seen in the following table, the 

 average value of meadows and grass land, that showed a considerable rise 

 in 1879, ^^'^ fallen again in 1908 below the value reported in 1851. 



Average Rental Value per ha. 

 Average Market Price » » 



