Agriculture has always played an important role in Thezan, and our ancestors, even in distant times, knew how to exploit this patchwork of land sites which surround the village. If, as Mr. Aimé Ourmet suggest, in his volume three of the history of Thezan, 'these were the good times' and we take the time to explore the territory of Thezan, looking at these elements we can understand the agricultural past of many of them:

- LA BORDE: comes from the occitan 'borda': sheepfolds. These lands are composed of old layers of alluvian soil made up of gravel sand and pebbles. It is very permeable soil and doesn't like drought, the only thing that will grow here is scrub grass, almond trees (and later vignes).

- GRAGNE PORCS: gronha-porcs: wet areas between the Orb and the Taurou, it would seem that pigs were kept here and the plants for their feed were also grown here.

- LOS FUMERASES: sites where there was a pile of manure or a ditch for manure.(Lou tresor dou felibrge de Mistral tome 1 page 116)

- LA FENASSE : in occitan Fenassa: hay that was allowed to run to seed, bad hay. Poor soil which produced poor quality hay.

- LES CREMADES : scorched areas. Perhaps wheatlands where the straw was burnt after the harvest.

- SOUS-LES-HORTS : under the gardens. Soil beneath the gardens of Aspiran Ravanes. Rich alluvial soil from the Orb, dislikes frost. Land for growing wheat and luzerne.

Apart from these holdings, the bank of the streams and the areas that could be watered were used for growing fruits and vegetables. The land was planted with almond fig, and olive trees.

It would seem that vine growing around the Mediterranean pre-dates the Roman occupation. In Thezan, during the middle ages and up to the phylloxera outbreak, vinyards covered the sunny hillsides but not necessarily the richer soils, which were reserved for growing hay, luzerne, oats, feeds for the cattle and wheat and olives for human consumption. This is the case especially for la Vignasse, Les Vignals, Les Vignots and Les Muscadels, land planted with muscat grapes.

The wines were an essential crop in ancient times and up to the middle ages, because wine was used to disinfect the water which often caused sickness and epidemics during periods of drought.

Before the discovery and use of sulfide as a means of preserving the wine, it was only drinkable from harvest time until april or may. Unless of course, like the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, one could afford to use pearls to make the wine less sour before drinking it.
This is the reason why the Languedoc had such a reputation from the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century for it's 'fine' (alcohol obtained through distillation) and it's sweet wines which kept well and could therefore be transporte, even for severa months, in casks, barrels and wooden containers.

In the XIX century the Béziers vinyards were spared the phylloxera outbreak and wine was worth gold. Vines were planted in every available piece of land, even those used for weat or alfalfa: it was more viable to buy food for the people and animals than it was to produce it. With the arrival of the railways wine became even more profitable, it could travel more quickly and reach the large cities. To produce wine in that quantity the wine growers needed to organise themselves and in 1901 Jean Jaures inaugurated the first wine co-operative at Maraussan.

If the agricultural workers in Thézan hardly participated in the strikes in the area of 1904, they compensated for it in 1912 when both Thézan and Quarante where involved in long hard strikes. To understand the situation it is necessary to recall the conditions in which agricultural workers lived in those days. At the top end of the social scale was the owner and directly under his authority the manager or steward who organised the labour and under his authority was the foreman who was responsible for the horses.
Then came the labourers who were employed annualy, and last of all journeymen who were taken on a daily basis. In the morning the journeyment went off in search of a job at the Bassin (in the square in front of the town hall), where the managers came to choose the work force that was needed for the day. During the grape harvest and at pruning time the journeeymen were taken on for as long as the work lasted.

In january 1912, in the middle of the pruning season, the agricultural workers of Thézan met at the "Café de la Pipe" and decided to strike. They demanded two litres of wine per day, an increase in salary of 50 centimes and that the journeymen  be employed on a annual basis. Faced with the lack of workers certain of the owners employed pruners from outside Thézan and because of the determination  of the strikers, had them protected by the army, to ensure their security. The Hussars besieged Thézan and the "Café de la Pipe". The strike became even stronger. During the night of 12th to 13th april 1912, the strikers destroyed the vinyards of some of the owners, 23,000 vine roots were trampled and broken. This action divided the strickers, some could not understand this destruction  of their  means of working. The police arrested the leaders. The stikers could no longer find employment. The mayor, Pierre Delcellier, took on the role of conciliator, with success. The workers obtained annual employment, a reduction of their hours, a salary increase and two lites of wine per day for the 'journeymen' who became workhands, and three litres for the labourers.

The strikes lasted 112 days and marked the beginning of large demonstration by the formation of the wine growers in unions and of a better organisation for the work force. The strike left scars which even today are not completely healed. 

(Thanks to Ann Marie Cairns Higgins for her translation)