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The idea of a model farm appeared in the 19th century, even if its nature remained unclear since it could refer as much to the architectural form of the farm buildings as to the agricultural methods used. Like many other endeavors promoting agricultural progress, the model farm idea also begged the question of its own exemplarity. This study focuses on the Limousin region, an area characterized by sharecropping and cattle-raising. It questions the extent to which architectural modernity played a role in introducing and spreading agricultural advances through an analysis of the perceptions of these modal farms by local elites. In the second half of the 19th century, agricultural progress was promoted less through this idea of a model farm than through the relationships that linked landholders and sharecroppers on large landholdings.