MUSTARD. 325 



outwards, the tails lapping over one another; so that the 

 width covered with carrots was about two feet ; the small 

 ones topped and laid iu the middle: on every two or three 

 rows a little dry straw, and thus to the height of four 

 feet, the tops well covered with dry straw ; another row 

 parallel, with room for a person to walk between : these 

 alleys at last filled with straw, and the outside guarded 

 with bundles of straw, staked down, or set fast with 

 hurdles, to prevent the wind blowing the straw away. 



But the person who made the greatest exertions in this 

 husbandry, was Robert Billing, a farmer at Weasen- 

 ham, who had them on a scale of 20, 30, and 40 acres 

 per annum, during four or five years ; gained some pre- 

 miums from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 

 and published a pamphlet on the subject. 



SECT. XVJ. MUSTARD. 



Much cultivated from March to Wisbeach, and about 

 the latter place. A good crop will yield five or six 

 coombs per acre, and it sells at from 8s. to 21s. a bushel. 

 It is, after being in full blossom, subje£l to a fly, which 

 damages it greatly. 



In the newly-inclosed lands of Marshland Smeeth, mus- 

 tard is the chief crop. They ploughed the old grass of that 

 rich common once, and after one or two harrovi'ings, sowed 

 a quarter of a peck of seed per acre, from Candlemas to the 

 end of March ; hand-hoed the plants once or twice, as 

 wanted, thinning and setting them out at nearly equal 

 distances. The crop is reaped the beginning of SciJtem- 

 ber, and tied in sheaves, leaving it three or four days on 

 the stubble : it is stacked in the field, and chese stacks are 

 called pies. If it gets rain in the field, it turns grey, and 



Y 3 lose 



