Agriculture of Norfolk. 
335 
harvest of 1843) from 6 to 8 bushels of wheat per acre more, 
where mustard was sown, than where the land was manured with 
a quarter of a ton of cake per acre. As, in this instance, the 
land was not manured for the mustard, the superior produce from 
it, added to the saving of cost of manure applied in the other 
case, renders this a strong presumption of its value, as a preparation 
for wheat. The question for consideration is, how the land is 
benefited by growing mustard in the manner described by Mr. 
Nurse. To which I would answer, it is by literally following 
out the three principles first stated (which were put on paper 
before I heard the result of his experience). 1st. Varying the 
crops. 2nd. Ploughing-in all the mustard before it runs to seed ; 
by which, at least, an equivalent is returned to the land for that 
taken. 3rd. Mr. Nurse strongly recommends that the land 
should be made as clean as possiljle ; and those who have once 
witnessed the result of garden cultivation need not be surprised at 
its beneficial effects in this instance, where it can be united with 
a mechanical means of improving the texture of the soil (which 
the green mustard would certainly be), as well as furnishing to 
the soil itself any chemical aid which the growing mustard may 
derive from the atmosphere around it, and uniting the chance of 
all these advantages with the positive certainty that you are not 
injuring the land, because you take nothing from it. 
Although, in the one instance named, no manure was applied 
to the land for the mustard, yet Mr. Nurse recommends manuring, 
to get as great a quantity of vegetable matter as possible to plough 
in. I will quote his own words: — 
" We have been in the habit of sowing mustard as a preparation for 
■wheat, the last few years, with great success. We have generally sown 
it on light land (subsoil chalk), cultivated on the 5-course system, by 
ploughing the two-years-old layer and getting it as clean as possible, 
manuring it with 7 or 8 loads per acre, and sowing it about the last week 
in July, or beginning of August, with a peck and a half of seed per acre. 
On newly brokeu-up land it is an admirable preparation. We have a 
field, mixed soil, subsoil chalk, that produced * * * of wheat after a 
crop of seed without any manure. We have also found it an excellent 
preparation for turnips on unkind land. It is advisable to get your land 
as clean as possible before you can sow it ; manuring it with 7 or 8 loads 
per acre, as before stated, and sowing it the early part of April. We 
consider mustard a great preventive of wire-worms, and generally sow 
it as a preparation when the land is affected by them. As far as our 
experience goes, we can strongly recommend sowing mustard as a pre- 
paration for wheat." 
This account is probably of more importance than some would 
at first suppose ; for, admitting the difficulty there may occa- 
sionally be in cleaning the land after breaking up a layer for a 
" bastard fallow," as it is called, yet, if beneficial to wheat, may 
