NEW VALUATION OF UNBUILT ON LAND I37 



These considerations also explain the decreases in values for the period 

 1879-1908, in the departments generally; only 7 of them showing an 

 increased rental value and 15 an increased market price. The only in- 

 creases of any importance are observed in Gironde and Landes where the 

 plantations along the sea coast are very thriving, in Jura and above all 

 in Vosges, where there are numerous very fine resinous forests. 



(f) Moorland, Commons or Grazing Grounds and Other Uncultivated Land. 

 The average rental values and market prices of this group were as foll- 

 ows at each valuation : 



Valuation of 



1851 1879 19C8 



frs. frs. frs. 



Average Rcnial Value p^r lia .; 6 ^ 



Market Price " " 155 207 150 



The average values of this group are but of secondary importance, 

 as they only concern holdings the yield of which is in any case very small. 

 For the rest, the variations necessarily of small importance, are less the re- 

 sult of economic conditions capable of affecting the rate of lease of unbuilt 

 on holdings, than of the character of the land included in the group at each 

 valuation. This remark is confirmed by an examination of the situation of the 

 departments in which the averages have altered most: thus, in 1908, there 

 are high averages shown for Deux-Sevres and Manche, because commons 

 of a certain size, previously grouped with the meadows, have now been in- 

 cluded in the moorland group, and for Meurthe-et-MoseUe, because there 

 have now been included in the group land on which there are deposits of 

 slag of comparatively high value. On the other hand, the exclusion in 

 1908 of grazing grounds, formerly counted as moorland, from this group, 

 has caused the averages in Calvados, Doubs, Kure, Nievre, Oise, Saone-et- 

 Loire and Seine-Inferieure to be lowered. However, in some departments in 

 which there are valuable moors especially in Bretagne, the variations in 

 the rates of lease explain the variations in the averages for this kind of 

 holding. 



The new valuation of unbuilt on land of which we have just given 

 an account has been a work of quite exceptional importance. This great 

 Government undertaking will not have been carried out in vain and, in the 

 various data collected in the course of the enquiry, ParUament will find all 

 the elements on which to base the land reform which, reducing the burdens 

 on rural land, will realise the legitimate aspirations of the agricultural 

 population. 



