4 BULLETIN 984, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



What proportion of the people migrate from the farms ? — There are 

 as yet no conclusive data to determine whether every farm sends 

 continually a quota of persons to city industry, or whether some farms 

 surrender none and others surrender all, or nearly all. It is not 

 known whether the proportion of the persons leaving the average 

 farm community is, on the whole, relatively constant or greatly 

 fluctuating. It is not known whether the proportion of persons in 

 this stream of migration varies greatly from farm community to 

 farm community. Do/some farm communities furnish an oversupply, 

 some an undersupply ? Broadly speaking, no one knows. 



The questions that relate to the proportion of persons who migrate 

 from the farms lead into the problems of folk depletion and normal 

 community growth. 



Where do farm people migrate to \ — Do they as a rule go by easy 

 stages a few miles at a time away from the home farm in the same 

 county; do they then move off into other counties of the State, then 

 scatter through the Nation ? No one can answer these questions for 

 the country at large. Does migration radiate from farms in circles, 

 and from farm communities in circles, wave after wave? Or does 

 it go in streams, after the manner of river systems? Is there a set 

 of migratory systems covering the Nation? No one seems to know. 

 Is there a relatively fixed relation between the number of persons 

 staying on the farm, the number moving into and remaining in the 

 county, the number remaining in the State, the number remaining 

 in the United States ? No one knows. 



If we are to understand the migration from farms we must find out 

 where the people go after leaving the farms. 



What occupations do migrants enter 1 — Do migrants from farms 

 enter a few particular occupations, or do they scatter evenly among 

 the principal occupations ? Do certain farm communities favor cer- 

 tain occupations? Is there a relation between the type of farm 

 community and the type of occupation which their migrants enter? 

 Do migrants go where the highest pay is offered ? Do they go upon 

 direct inducement ? Do they go upon order, as hotbed owners fill 

 orders from their tomato beds, cabbage beds, celery beds? Do 

 migrants go into the occupations of lower status in cities and finally 

 work their way into other occupations of a higher status? Anyone 

 with a knowledge of American country life may perhaps answer 

 these questions for particular communities, but no one can answer 

 them for the country as a whole. 



It would seem necessary, in any thorough analysis of migration, 

 to know what occupations migrants enter, and whether the road into 

 an occupation is more or less direct from farm life or whether it is 

 circuitous. 



