+----------+--------------------------+------------------------+ | | |Ratio to the respective | | |Ratio to the population of|groups of the population| | | 1858. | of 1882. | | | Per cent. | Per cent. | | +--------------+-----------+---------+--------------+ |Districts.| |Surplus of population| Adult males | | | Emigration, | in 1882. | working | | | 1858-1882. +-----------+---------+outside, 1882.| | | | Total. | Males. | | +----------+--------------+-----------+---------+--------------+ |Ranenburg | 10 | 30 | 23 | 20 | |Dankoff | 9 | 26 | 22 | 21 | +----------+--------------+-----------+---------+--------------+ There is thus but a minor fraction of the surplus population that has forever left the native village with the chance of settling somewhere else as farmers.[86] It is still to agriculture that most of the wandering peasantry are looking, not as farmers, however, but as wage laborers, while a vast minority flock to the cities.[87] As to this class of the peasantry, it is commonly regarded by the Russian press as standing on the lowest round of the ladder of village life. It does not seem generally to occur to the public mind that a regular movement of the working population, like the movement of mercury in the barometrical tube, has to select the line of least resistance. Indeed, it is distinctly shown by comparison that the wages are higher outside than within the village. _Local._ _Abroad._ _Branches._ _Minimum._ _Maximum._ _Minimum._ _Maximum._ I. _Agriculture._ Per summer, board provided by the employer. Farm help 25.00 35.00 40.00 60.00 Ranchmen in the south 50.00 100.00 II. _Trade and service._ Per month, no board extra. 7.00 15.00 10.00 18.00 III. _Capitalistic industry._ Per month, no board extra. Factory hands, in winter 5.00 9.00 Factory hands through the year 10.00 18.00 Turf cutters in summer 15.00 25.00 Coal miners, in winter, etc. 8.00 13.00 24.00 37.00 Difference of wages stimulates the movement, which when once started in a village, goes on at an ever increasing rate.[88]