the hills are waste. There
are some enclosures of stone, and some sheep. The first four years of
madder are unproductive; the fifth and sixth yield the whole value of
the land. Then it must be renewed. The _sparsette_ is the common or true
saintfoin. It lasts about five years: in the best land it is cut twice,
in May and September, and yields three thousand pounds of dry hay to the
setterie, the first cutting, and five hundred pounds, the second. The
_setterie_ is of seventy-five _dextres en tout sens_, supposed about
two arpents. Lucerne is the best of all forage; it is sowed herein the
broad-cast, and lasts about twelve or fourteen years. It is cut four
times a year, and yields six thousand pounds of dry hay, at the four
cuttings, to the setterie. The territory in which the _vin muscat de
Frontignan_ is made, is about a league of three thousand _toises_ long,
and one fourth of a league broad. The soil is reddish and stony, often
as much stone as soil. On the left, it is a plain, on the right hills.
There are made about one thousand _pieces_ (of two hundred and fifty
bottles each) annually, of which six hundred are of the first quality,
made on the _coteaux_. Of these, Madame Soubeinan makes two hundred,
Monsieur Reboulle ninety, Monsieur Lambert, _medecin de la faculte
de Montpelier_, sixty, Monsieur Thomas, _notaire_, fifty, Monsieur
Argilliers fifty, Monsieur Audibert forty; equal to four hundred and
ninety; and there are some small proprietors who make small quantities.
The first quality is sold, _brut_, for one hundred and twenty livres the
_piece_; but it is then thick, and must have a winter and the
_fouet_, to render it potable and brilliant. The _fouet_ is like a
chocolate-mill, the handle of iron, the brush of stiff hair. In bottles,
this wine costs twenty-four sous, the bottle, &c. included. It is
potable the April after it is made, is best that year, and after ten
years begins to have a pitchy taste, resembling it to Malaga. It is not
permitted to ferment more than half a day, because it would not be so
liquorish. The best color, and its natural one, is the amber. By force
of whipping, it is made white, but loses flavor. There are but two or
three _pieces_ a year of red Muscat made; there being but one vineyard
of the red grape, which belongs to a baker called Pascal. This sells
in bottles at thirty sous, the bottle included. Rondelle, _negociant
en vin, Porte St. Bernard, fauxbourg St. Germain, Paris_, buys