The evolution of the agricultural sector and the « family » character of farms - The evolution of the agricultural sector has been concommittant with an accentuation of the « family » character of farms. An explanation of this phenomenon is suggested, it is based on assumptions concerning the internal mechanisms of family farms adapting to pressures resulting from general economic development. The mistake made by late 19th century economists both Marxist and liberal - predicting the inescapable superiority of capitalist farm is mainly due to their neglect of the difficulties to daily control the decisions taken to organize agricultural production. A true test of these assumptions will be whether or not the predictions which they permit are realized or not. It is predicted that this structural transformation could be changed by three factors : a radical reorientation of economic development, a spectacular and unforeseen - consequently unlikely - scientific progress in the biological disciplines of agricultural research, a disparition of the supply of young people desiring to become farmers.
