Admitting that the reproduction of family farming as a mode of production derives from a double selective process (selection between farmers and between their heirs) and that the models which are supposed to represent these phenomenae have vastly underestimated the importance and the diversity of the mecanisms of patrimony accumulation and transmission ; this papers presents the results observed in the agricultural pattern caracteristic of the Mediterranean South of France. Analysing the data of the Land tenure survey of the « RGA^ Foncier» and the observations made from various « Cantons» we point out the specificity of the fecondity of the agricultural population of the Languedoc, and the effect of the difference in size of the patrimony received on the future evolution of the farm units. These results bring a new light on the importance of the patrimony in the production process.
