32 
On White Mustard. 
No. 2. — Mode and Time of Sowing, and Quantity of Seed. 
As the more the plants are dispersed over the land the better 
will the weeds be smothered, the most approved method is to sow 
it either by a seed-drill having no coulters or by a barrow seed- 
engine (first made by Bennet, of Farnham, Kent, but now common 
all over England) ; or in case of neither being ready, a well prac- 
tised and careful seedsman may sow it evenly enough by hand to 
answer all purposes. 
The land should be rendered as fine a tilth as if required for 
turnips, by one or more ploughings, &c., if necessary, and the 
seed be sown upon a harrowed surface and then covered by light 
seed-harrows, going twice over the ground, the second time across 
or obliquely. 
A peck per acre is the usual quantity of seed; but three- 
fourths of a peck of good sound seed, if the land be in a verv fine 
state, may be found sufficient. 
Should the ground be in a very dry or cloddy state, it would be 
advisable to delay sowing the seed until a gentle rain shall have 
fallen ; but by no means puddle it in when the land is in an ex- 
tremely wet state, as dry weather quickly following would be apt 
to cause a crust upon the top of the soil, which would much hinder 
its progress in coming up. 
No. 3. — Period of Maturity, according to the Season of the Year. 
If the seed be sown in May or .June, or up to the middle of 
July, the crop will in an average of seasons have attained to its full 
growth, i. e., be ready to burst into bloom in six or seven weeks. 
But after that season of the year its progress in growth is slower, 
as the autumn advances ; and when sown in August, it will usually 
be eight to ten weeks in coming to maturity, but much depending 
upon the warmth and moisture of the season. It may in a favour- 
able autumn be sown even as late as the end of September, and 
produce a considerable bulk of crop, to be ploughed in before the 
winter frosts destroy it. 
In referring to my journal kept during the summer of 1845, I 
find I ploughed up G acres of fallow on a light turnip-soil, which 
had been sown with rye-grass (in the wheat-crop the previous 
year) and fed off and folded bv sheep, which was rolled down 
and harrowed, and sown with a peck per acre of white mustard — 
4 acres on the 10th. and the remaining 2 acres on the 16lh of May ; 
and on the 21st of June I began to feed it off (being about 1^ 
feet high) with 228 sheep and 70 lambs ; which kept them, being 
folded upon it at night, with only an old bare layer to exercise 
upon in the day, twelve days; and upon which the sheep much 
improved in condition. 
