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In 1731, they obtained an order of council, prohibiting both the

planting of new vineyards, and the renewal of these old ones, of

which the cultivation had been interrupted for two years, without

a particular permission from the king, to be granted only in

consequence of an information from the intendant of the province,

certifying that he had examined the land, and that it was

incapable of any other culture. The pretence of this order was

the scarcity of corn and pasture, and the superabundance of wine.

But had this superabundance been real, it would, without any

order of council, have effectually prevented the plantation of

new vineyards, by reducing the profits of this species of

cultivation below their natural proportion to those of corn and

pasture.