three
hundred pieces of the first quality every year. The _coteaux_ yield
about half a piece to the _setterie_, the plains a whole piece. The
inferior quality is not at all esteemed. It is bought by the merchants
of Cette, as is also the wine of Beziers, and sold by them for
Frontignan of the first quality. They sell thirty thousand _pieces_ a
year under that name. The town of Frontignan marks its casks with a hot
iron: an individual of that place, having two casks emptied, was offered
forty livres for the empty cask by a merchant of Cette. The town of
Frontignan contains about two thousand inhabitants; it is almost on
the level of the ocean. Transportation to Paris is fifteen livres the
quintal, and takes fifteen days. The price of packages is about eight
livres eight sous the one hundred bottles. A _setterie_ of good vineyard
sells for from three hundred and fifty to five hundred livres, and rents
for fifty livres. A laboring man hires at one hundred and fifty livres
the year, and is fed and lodged; a woman at half as much. Wheat sells
at ten livres the _settier_, which weighs one hundred pounds, _poids de
table_. They make some Indian corn here, which is eaten by the poor. The
olives do not extend northward of this into the country above twelve
or fifteen leagues. In general, the olive country in Languedoc is about
fifteen leagues broad. More of the waste lands between Frontignan and
Mirval are capable of culture; but it is a marshy country, very subject
to fever and ague, and generally unhealthy. Thence arises, as is said, a
want of hands.

_Cette_. There are in this town about ten thousand inhabitants.
Its principal commerce is wine; it furnishes great quantities of
grape-pumice for making _verdigrise_. They have a very growing commerce;
but it is kept under by the privileges of Marseilles.

May 13. _Agde_. On the right of the Etang de Thau are plains of some
width, then hills, in olives, vines, mulberry, corn, and pasture. On the
left a narrow sand-bar, separating the Etang from the sea, along which
it is proposed to make a road from Cette to Agde. In this case, the post
would lead from Montpelier by Cette and Agde to Beziers, being leveller,
and an hour or an hour and a half nearer. Agde contains six or eight
thousand inhabitants.

May 14. _Beziers_. Rich plains in corn, saintfoin, and pasture; hills
at a little distance to the right in olives; the soil both of hill and
plain is red going from Agde to Beziers