2 7 2 ] 



peas, scarcely any higher yield is obtained. Rai seed yields less 

 oil than sorshe and shweti-sorshe seeds. In the former case the 

 yield is 10 seers per maund and in the latter 13 to 14 seers. 

 All the three varieties of mustard are sometimes grown as a 

 green manure and sometimes for green fodder only, the plants 

 being cut and given to cattle in January and February, i.e. 

 when they are just in flower. Sometimes a crop of mustard is 

 ploughed in as manure, but this form of green manuring has 

 no such special merit as the ploughing in of dhaincha^ sunn- 

 hemp, indigo, or barbatt. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



LINSEED (UNUM USITATISSIMUM). 



T^HIS plant has been discovered in the wild state in the 

 region between the Black and Caspian seas and the 

 Persian Gulf, the original home of the Aryan race. It is one 

 of the most ancient fibre plants of India being mentioned in 

 Panini thus: "Atasi syat-uma-kshuma" Whether the 

 (< Kshouma-bashan " of the vedas is silk-cloth, or linen 

 cloth, is doubtful. Probably the word kshuma was 

 applied first to silk and afterwards to linen, as 

 " kshaume bashane bashanam agnimadhiyatam" has always 

 been understood in practice with reference to silken wedding 

 robe. What is most ancient .survives in the most ancient re- 

 ligious customs. Besides it is not at all certain that linen 

 cloth was ever made in India. Flax is grown not for its fibre 

 but for its seed in India and though the knowledge that linen 

 fibre was obtained from the flax plant existed in ancient India 

 the use of silken cloth has been prescribed for religious obser- 

 vances. The growing of flax for fibre instead of seed (fibre 

 and seed cannot be both grown to perfection from the same 



