Accroissement de la propriété paysanne et développement de l'exploitation moyenne

The peasant landownership has increased in the Châtillonnais for forty years. The peasants gained this landownership upon all kinds of non peasant landowners. The two main groups of non peasant ladowners. The two main groups of non peasant landowners are the foUowing : first darks and member of the working class who are the heirs of their family estates and sell during the all studied period. Owing to their large land purchases, the peasants gained the first place on the land market. The cost of this practice is very high. The middle sized farmers are the main purchasers. By this way they help on the poorer farmers disappearing and stop the development of large sized farmers who use wage-earning workers. But they get into debt and are in difficulties. In order to improve their position some farmers' unions ask for a land- ownership rights reform : they want a control on lease contracts, and a continity of the non peasant landownership under their own control on land using.