THE OIL MILL

   Before the vineyard conquered almost the whole territory of the fertile plains and sunny hillsides, numerous olive plantings painted green and silver forms in the landscape of the Lower-Languedoc.

   The olives were gathered shortly after the chestnuts, and in the 260 mills, which could be found in the department Hérault, an uninterrupted activity started, lasting until end of March, beginning of April.

   In the winter 1789, the harvest of the department gathered 45.000 hectolitres of olive oil. Thirty-five years later, it was only a third and today it approaches zero.

   In the 18th century, Lunas was possessing a modest mill, belonging to Mister DE PEYROTTES from Cazilhac, treating exclusively olives from the direct surroundings.

   Only in the beginning of the 19th century, Henri MOUYSSET from Sénégra moves to Lunas, where he had married Miss Emilie BOULOUYS. He bought a house at the confluent of the Gravezon and the Nize. He canalised the streams and used their energy for installing an oil mill able to treat almost the whole gathering of the Béziers region.

The water of the Nize moved a hydraulic wheel, which turned a mill of stone in a vat, where the olives, brought by their owners, were crushed and grinded into a sort of mash.

   This mash was filled in a sack, called „cradle" and came on a press, where it was watered with boiling water and pressed about one hour. This action needed the work of four men.

   The obtained liquid had to rest, so that the lighter oil could float on the heavier water. The "collector" gathers the oil with a special copper spoon.

   The resting liquid was filled in a stone vat, called „hell", where after five or six days a last quantity of oil could be gained, which was very spicy and strong.

  The water that was left, came back into the river, and the owner of the olives, who often was present during the whole process, got his oil from the first pressing and this one from the "hell", which could be consumed mixed with sunflower oil, as well as the waste from the "cradle", used for feeding pigs or dried as economic combustible.

   The number of needed workers was relatively high. In the main season, the mill employed eleven persons :

    - one miller to manage the mill

    - two presses, respectively needing the work of four men

    - one " collector"

    - one fireman for having prepared boiling water at any moment.

   In this way, the mill of Lunas worked under the direction of its founder and later his son-in-law Mathieu CIFFRE, followed by Charles CIFFRE, who closed it in 1937, when the small quantity of gathered olives made unprofitable the activity.