QR Manglieu 3
The farming world
Jean, a farmer in Tarragnat
The year was 1881. Jean, aged 61, was the head of one of the 17 families in the hamlet of Tarragnat, which then had 62 inhabitants. By his side were Anne, his wife, Jacques, his son, Marie, his daughter-in-law, and his two young grandchildren. Like most of his neighbours, he owned his own land and farmed a small estate, which his son inherited.
This small home was just like the others in the hamlet. Each of them usually houses 4 to 6 members of the same family from two or three generations. They sometimes had a farm hand living alongside them, whose only source of income was their ability to labour.
Living on a subsistence economy, these farming families mainly grew cereals (wheat, rye and barley) and kept small herds of sheep and cattle, sometimes just a few animals. Oxen and, more rarely, horses were used for transport and ploughing.
Image captions
- Working in the fields at Manglieu in 1934. In the background, the hamlet of Champciaux.
- The hamlet of Tarragnat on the cadastral map of 1830.
- The buildings shown in pink are houses, barns or stables. Nearby, the small plots are gardens. Farther away are pastures and cultivated fields.