216 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



or sickle, and if so ripe as to shell, laid into a wagon box 

 with tight canvass over the bottom and sides, so as to pre- 

 vent waste. As soon as it is perfectly dry, it may be threshed 

 and cleaned when it is ready for market. 



The mustard is a valuable crop for green food for cattle 

 or sheep, or for plowing in as a fertilizer. The following 

 experiment was made by Mr. Gray in England in 1844, an 

 account of which appears in the Journal of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society. He says : " The land on which it is 

 growing is a thin stone-brash, and very poor. It had been 

 manured, for turrieps and rape, at the rate of 30 loads an 

 acre, with compost, consisting of two-thirds lime and one- 

 third road-earth; and, on the 10th of July, the turnep and 

 rape-seed were drilled in with 80 bushels of ashes an acre, 

 H came up slowly ; and, with very few exceptions, was 

 taken off by the fly. On the 2Sth of August I sowed 12 Ibs. 

 of white mustard-seed an acre, harrowing in the same. It 

 was slow in coming up, from the dryness of the land; indeed, 

 atone time I despaired of a crop, but when the rain fell it 

 grew prodigiously ; and on the llth day of October I com- 

 menced feeding it. On an average it was then two feet 

 high, and very thick in the ground ; you will judge, from 

 the specimen sent, of its present height above 30 inches. I 

 consider it a valuable artificial in sheep husbandry, and par- 

 ticularly so when turneps or rape fail ; and, from its rapid 

 growth, two, or even three crops may be taken and fed off 

 :n the season. From its great succulency, some care is 

 required in feeding it off. Our sheep are doing well upon 

 it ; but I find they make better work, having an outlet every 

 day on their walk, than when they were wholly confined 

 upon it. Four hundred consume about a quarter of an acre 

 a day, or thereabouts. One grew a most excellent piece of 

 mustard last autumn, on some very heavy clay land, and 

 without manure. His sheep being badly managed when feed- 

 ing it off, he plowed in a considerable quantity for his wheat, 

 of which he had a splendid crop, and certainly the best he 

 grew last season. 1 mention this circumstance, believing it 

 may be grown with success on either heavy or light soils. I 

 was led to suppose it might be greatly affected by frosts, but 

 we have experienced sufficient to destroy the potato-haulm 

 and the dahlias, yet it has not in the slightest degree affected 

 ihe mustard ; I therefore conclude it must be severe to des- 



