4 BULLETIN 984, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
What proportion of the people migrate from the farms I — 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 hi 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 I 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 % — 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 county 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. 
