870 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pakt III. 



SuBSECT. 1 . Mustard. Sinajns, L. Tetrad. Siliq. L. and Cruciferce, J. Moutarde 

 or Senevcy Fr. ; Serifs Ger. ; Mostaza, Span. ; and Senapa, Ital. 



5479. There are two species of mustard in cultivation in the fields, the white mustard 

 {Sinapis alba, fig. 596 a), and the black or comiTion (Sinapis 

 nigra, b). Both are annuals, natives of Britain and most parts 

 of Europe, and cultivated there and in China, for an unknown 

 period. White mustard flowers in June, and ripens its 

 seeds in July. Black mustard is rather earlier. Mustard 

 is an exhausting crop, but profitable when the soil answers, 

 and especially in breaking up rich loamy lands, as it comes 

 off earlier, and allows time for preparing the soil for wheat. 

 In breaking up very rich grass lands, three or four crops 

 are sometimes taken in succession. It cannot however be 

 considered as a good general crop for the farmer, even if 

 there was a demand for it, as, like most of the commer- 

 cial plants, it yields little or no manure. The culture of 

 black or common mustard is by far the most extensive, and 

 is chiefly carried on in the county of Durham. The seed of 

 the black mustard, like that of the wild sort, and also of the 

 wild radish, will remain in the ground, if below the depth of 

 three or four inches, for ages without germinating, hence, 

 once introduced it is difficult to extirpate. Whenever they throw the earth out of their 

 ditches in the Isle of Ely, the bank comes up thick with mustard ; the seed falling into 

 the water and sinking to the botttom, will remain embalmed in the mud for ages without 

 "vegetation. 



5480. Any rich loamy soil will raise a crop of mustard, and no other preparation is 

 required than that of a good deep ploughing and harrowing sufficient to raise a 

 mould on the surface. The seeds may be sown broad-cast at the rate of one lippie per 

 acre ; harrowed in and guarded from birds till it comes up, and hoed and wed before it 

 begins to shoot. In Kent, according to the survey of Boys, white mustard is culti- 

 vated for the use of the seedsmen in London. In the tillage for it, the ploughed land 

 is, he says, harrowed over, and then furrows are stricken about eleven or twelve inches 

 apart, sowing the seed in the proportion of two or three gallons per acre in March. 

 The crop is afterwards hoed and kept free from weeds. 



5481. Mustard is reaped in the beginning of September, being tied in sheaves, and 

 left three or four days on the stubble. It is then stacked in the field. It is remarked 

 that rain damages it. A good crop is three or four quarters an acre : the price from 7s. 

 to 205. a bushel. Three or four crops are sometimes taken running, but this must in 

 most cases be bad husbandry. 



5482. The use of the white mustard is or should be chiefly for medical and horticultural 

 purposes, though it is often ground into flour, and mixed with the black, which is much 

 stronger, and far more difficult to free from its black husks. The black or common 

 mustard is exclusively used for grinding into flour of mustard, and the black husk is 

 separated by very delicate machinery. The French either do not attempt, or do not suc- 

 ceed in separating the husk, as their mustard when brought to table is always black. 

 It is, however, more pungent than ours, because that quality resides chiefly in the husk. 

 The constituents of mustard seed appear to be chiefly starch, mucus, a bland fixed oil, an 

 acrid volatile oil, and an ammoniacal salt. The fresh powder, Dr. Cullen observes, shews 

 little pungency ; but when it has been moistened with vinegar and kept for a day, the 

 essential acrid oil is evolved, and it is then much more acrid. 



5483. The leaves of the mustard family, like those of all the radish and brassica tribe, are eaten 

 green by cattle and sheep, and may be used as pot-herbs. The haulm is commonly burned ; but is 

 better employed as litter for the straw-yard, or for covering underdrains, if any happen to be forming at 

 the time, 



5484. As substitutes for either the black or common mustard, most of the Crucifera 

 enumerated when treating of oil plants (5475.), may be used, especially the Sinapis 

 arvensis or charlock, S. orientalis, Chinensis, and Brassicata, the latter commonly cul- 

 tivated in China. The Raphanis raphanistrum, common in corn-fields, and known as the 

 wild mustard, is so complete a substitute, that it is often separated from the refuse corn 

 and sold as Durham mustard seed. 



SuBSECT 2. 



The Canary Grass. Phalaris Canariensis, L. 

 Graminece, J. {Jig' 597.) 



Trian. Dig. L. and 



5485. The canary grass is an annual, with a culm from a foot to eighteen inches in 

 lieightj and lively green leaves almost half an inch in width. The seeds are thickly 



