MIS 



MUT 



the skin. They abound in damp pla- 

 ces. 



MUST. The fresh juice of the 

 grape before fermentation. Other 

 juices capable of fermentation. 



JIUSTARD. Two species are cul- 



tivated, both annuals ; the Shmpis 

 alba (a), for salad, oil, as an ingredi- 

 ent in pickles and medicine ; and S. 

 nigra (b), or black mustard, for the 

 condiment known by that name. For 

 salad, the seeds are sown very thick 

 in rows of two or three inches wide, 

 and the crop cut while in the second 

 leaf. It grows up in a few days, and 

 may be sown any time during the 

 season, if well watered and sheltered 

 from the hot sun. 



For a field crop the soil should be 

 fine, rich, and loamy, deeply plough- 

 ed, rather moist and light than oth- 

 erwise. The seed is sown thinly, 

 broadcast, in April or May : two to 

 three gallons are used per acre. The 

 plants are hoed in the fourth leaf, 

 and, to keep down weeds, thinned to 

 eight or twelve inches apart, and col- 

 lected as soon as the pods have 

 changed from green. It may be sown 

 m drills two feet apart, and twelve 

 inches in the row. It must be well 

 dried before thrashing, which is done 

 by a flail. It ought not to be exposed 

 to rains. A good crop is twenty-four 

 to thirty-two bushels per acre, which 

 will bring from S70 to $100, at eight 

 cents the pound for seed. In the 



manufacture of mustard the white 

 and black seeds are combmed, al- 

 though the black is best ; they are 

 pressed between rollers, and ground 

 in a mill set apart for the purpose, 

 and sifted and screened as fine flour. 

 The pungency of mu.stard. by which 

 it raises blisters on the skin, is due 

 to a volatile oil containing sulphur, 

 which is not originally j)resent in the 

 flour, but results from the action of 

 the moistened emulsin {myrosync) 

 of the seeds upon a peculiar acid 

 present, to which the name of my- 

 ronic acid has been given. The se- 

 cret of making good flour, therefore, 

 consists of keeping the whole perfect- 

 ly dry from the seeds to the lime of 

 sale, otherwise the changes which 

 produce the active principle will have 

 taken place before it is wanted. Vin- 

 egar diminishes this change, and 

 should not be used with mustard : te- 

 pid water is the proper fluid to mix 

 up the condiment, or make the irrita- 

 ting poultice. The seeds of many 

 cruciferous plants are occasionally 

 substituted for the true mustard. 



The white mustard yields a bland 

 oil in large quantity, from twenty-five 

 to thirty per cent, by expression.' The 

 cake is employed as a good manure. 

 The black species is also sown in 

 borders around seed beds, to protect 

 them from the black flies {halltca). 



MUSTELLA. The genus contain- 

 ing the weasel and other vermin 

 quadrupeds. 



MUTAGE. A process to stop the 

 fermentation of must. It is practised 

 either by diffusing sulphurous acid in 

 the cask into which the liquor is rack- 

 ed by burning sulphur matches, or by 

 adding a little sulphite of lime to the 

 must : the latter is the best. 



M U T I C U S. Beardless, without 

 awns, or arista. 



MUTTON. The flesh of the sheep. 

 The best meat is that from wethers 

 three to five years old, of the South 

 Down or improved Leicester breed. 

 The spayed ewe five years old is also 

 said to make equally good m.eat. The 

 oflal of a well-made animal with fine 

 bone should not exceed one third of 

 the live weight. 



513 



