MUSTARD. 371 



abundance, and is regarded as a troublesome weed, though 

 its seeds furnish the common table mustard. The stem is 

 four or five feet in height, round, smooth, and branching ; 

 the leaves are lobed and toothed on the margin, the 

 radical or lower ones rough, those of the upper portion of 

 the stalk smooth ; the flowers are numerous, rather large, 

 bright yellow ; the pods are erect, somewhat four-sided, and 

 are set closely against the sides of the stalk ; the seeds are 

 small, round, brownish-black, and retain their germinative 

 powers many years. Nearly eighteen thousand are con- 

 tained in an ounce. 



Propagation and Cultivation. It is raised from seeds, 

 about four quarts of which will be required for sowing an 

 acre. It is sometimes grown in the vegetable garden, but is 

 generally cultivated in fields for its seeds, which, as before 

 remarked, furnish the common table mustard. The sowing 

 is usually made from the middle of April to the middle of 

 May. After making the surface of the ground fine and 

 smooth, sow broadcast, or thinly in shallow drills fourteen 

 or fifteen inches apart ; cultivate during the season in the 

 usual manner, and in August the crop will be ready for har- 

 vesting. Cut the stalks at the ground before the pods shed 

 their seeds, and spread in a dry, light, and airy situation, till 

 they are sufficiently dried for threshing. 



When grown for salad in the vegetable garden, it should 

 be sown, and cut for use, as directed for White Mustard. 



Lawson says, if the seeds are covered to the depth of three 

 inches or more, they will lie dormant, and retain their powers 

 of vegetation for ages ; from which circumstance, together with 

 the liability of the seeds to become shaken out in the har- 

 vesting of the crop, such lands as are once employed for 

 the growing of mustard cannot be fairly cleaned of it for a 

 considerable length of time, and only by judicious fallow- 

 ing or fallow-cropping, with repeated hoeing and weeding* 



