AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
181 
fourth of a peck per acre, to be harrowed in 
lightly, or just so much as to cover the seed. 
As the plant is weak in its first stages of 
growth, it will need every encouragement^ 
the grower, therefore, may wait a favorable 
opportunity to sow. All sods or clods should 
be raked into furrows or rows. One good 
hoeing and thinning should take place in 
May; the thinner the better, if the plants 
are strong and healthy. In sowing brown 
mustard on old cultivated lands, care should 
be taken to have them in a high state, of fer¬ 
tility, and well replenished with manure ; 
the course of culture the same, taking care 
not to disturb the growing plants too much. 
The white musturd may be sown on all 
soils of moderate depth and fertility. For 
this crop the land requires more culture ; it 
can not be got into too fine a’ state, nor can 
the land be too thoroughly pulverized, as in 
fallowing; and the plant is of such rapid 
growth and early maturity, that sowing may 
be deferred so late as the first of July; how¬ 
ever, it is best to sow earlier. The best 
practice is to put in this crop with bone-dust, 
or superphosphate ; about three-fourths of a 
peck of seed, and ten bushels of bone-dust, 
or its equivalent per acre, is sufficient, to be 
drilled in rows about one foot apart, and 
lightly harrowed in. Very little further no¬ 
tice is required till harvest day. In sowing 
this crop for green manure the same process 
should be pursued, as also for a forage crop. 
The lands, for the better turning in the green 
manure, should be set out before drilling, 
and a deep furrow left, in which to turn “the 
first plowing up ” of the full grown crop. In 
plowing in, “ a clog ” of sufficient Aveight 
must be attached to the plow hake, with 
chain, to allow the clog to drag along the 
furrow, and fastened to the top of the coul¬ 
ter-shank, so dragging as to keep down every 
stem till covered by the passing furrow. 
Rolling should immedietely follow; and when 
the plant is suffieietly decayed, the drilling 
of wheat may go forward without any other 
aid than a good harrowing. 
The best state for feeding off this crop, or 
of plowing it in, is immediately before the 
podding takes place, or, at all events, is much 
advanced ; otherwise it becomes too woody 
and coarse. It produces a large quantity of 
food ; but to make the best of it, heavy 
stocking is desirable, lest it grow too strong 
and fibrous ; it then becomes unhealthy for 
old sheep, and indigestible to young ones. It 
is said that the brown and white varieties 
are of great use in preventing the ravages 
of wire-worms. We know that little beetles 
have instinctive faculties, as well as that of 
larger growth ; they will not deposit their 
eggs in unpalatable places. The land should 
be well worked and cleaned after each crop, 
and every seed made to vegetate, other¬ 
wise they become injurious to succeeding 
crops, particularly the brown variety. On 
good soils, several of these crops may be 
taken in succession, if required; or an in¬ 
tervening corn or potato crop may be ad¬ 
visable. 
Management .—The great point to be aimed 
at by the grower is to produce his seed well 
grown, and of a reddish-brown color ; bright 
and fresh, gray or discolored seed is of very 
inferior value; hence the necessity of giving 
his plants plenty of room to perfect their 
seed, to get it harvested without rain. The 
first thing to be attended to is the ripening. 
Experience has almost determined a rule or 
guide. When the pods to a deep brown ap¬ 
proaching purple, and those low on the stem 
are turning to a light brown, it may be cut, 
and should be tied into sheaves, or laid in 
reaps if intended to be thrashed immediately: 
tieing into sheaves, and “ pieing,” is the best 
practice. The pieing is one of the most dif¬ 
ficult operations in stacking: every sheaf 
must be so laid that the lower ends of the 
outer sheaves droop downwards, so as to 
shoot off the rains, and prevent damage 
from wet; the form is invariably round, and 
when a sufficient height is attained, it is 
finished with a high, conical, or “ sugar-loaf ” 
roof, topped by some long sedge or similar 
covering. Great care is requisite in leading 
to the pie or stack. In mustard-growing 
countries it is a kind of business to individ¬ 
uals who keep a stock of “ mustard cloths,” 
sleighs, sieves, &c., which they let out for 
stacking and threshing ; but common farm- 
carts, fitted with cloths or coarse sheets, 
will do very well; all that is required is to 
prevent loss from the shelling seed while 
loading and teeming. It is usual to thresh 
with the flail in the field. The sheaves are 
generally very long and dry, and a stroke or 
two will beat out most of the seed. Dress¬ 
ing the seed is a peculiar task, and requires 
an experienced hand ; the mustard sieve and 
a steady wind being essential to clean and 
correct dressing. Mustard seed will not 
keep well in granary ; the best way to keep 
it is in the pie. 
Produce .—The yield of straw or haulm is 
very great, and the common practice is to 
burn it. This is wrong; it makes good sted- 
dles for corn-stacks, and good litter for the 
bottom of the fold-yard. The yield of seed 
is various ; as much as 42 bushels of brown 
mustard have been obtained per acre, but 
the general average would be from 24 to 28 
bushels per acre; of white mustard, the 
general average would be from 25 to 40 bush¬ 
els per acre. The price is very fickle, the 
brown mustard varying from 7s. to 8s. per 
bushel; and of white mustard, from 2s. Gd. 
to 25s. per bushel. The present prices are, 
of red or brown mustard about 15s. per 
bushel : of white, about 9s. per bushel.— 
Mark-Lane Express. 
THE HORSE- 
[Continued from page 110.] 
PART II. 
Blood or Race Horses—Passion of the English for them — 
Their peculiar merits and defects—Evils arising from too 
large anadmixture of their blood for the varieties of the 
useful horse, such as the saddle-horse, hunter, charger, 
coacli-horse—Importance of size—The best system of breed¬ 
ing to supply that is a cross between the Cleveland Bay and 
the thorough-bred—Inferiority of the Arab to the English 
Race-horse—American Trotters — Morgans—Black Hawks 
— Union of qualities in the Cleveland Bay. 
The English have anundiminished passion 
for the turf, and a consideration for the 
Blood-horse as a being of rank. They look 
upon him as the nobleman of the “ population 
chevaline." They give him credit for a de¬ 
gree of spiritual courage ; and Englishmen, 
even in the humblest ranks of life, will tell 
you there’s nothing like blood—blood will 
tell—one can call upon blood. The Crown, 
even in the person of a Queen, has reestab¬ 
lished the breeding stud at Hampton Court, 
and with such success that the Royal year¬ 
lings, at the last sale, averaged the extraordi¬ 
nary sum of four hundred and forty-one 
guineas apiece—the prices varying from 
twenty-five to a thousand guineas.* The 
principal breeding stallion at Hampton court 
is the superb Orlando, whom I made it a 
point to visit. As a consequence of this 
taste for thoroughbred horses, pervading ma¬ 
jesty, nobility, gentry, and commonalty, they 
have greatly multiplied. During the past 
season, eighteen hundred and forty-one race¬ 
horses started. The blood brood-mares are 
not more than five times as numerous as the 
breeding blood stallions. At New-Market 
alone, there were last month ninety-two 
yearlings in training. The entries for the 
*The average price of all the blood yearlings sold in 
England, in 1854, was about one hundred and forty guin¬ 
eas ; and of the brood mares about a hundred guineas 
apiece. 
next Derby are a hundred and ninety-three, 
but forty of the colts and fillies entered are 
already hors de combat. The returns so far 
show, for 1854, nine hundred and seventy- 
three blood foals of high lineage ; but out of 
that number not more than a dozen are like¬ 
ly to win places in the first and second ranks 
of fame. They will run in one year for an 
amount exceeding a million and a quarter of 
dollars, exclusive of “ added money.” 
There are a few men in England who ride 
thoroughbred horses, as Hunters, Hacks, and 
Chargers, and drive them, and in short use 
them for all purposes, except those to which 
the horses in the class of walking draft, be¬ 
fore mentioned, and the dwarf races are ex¬ 
clusively adapted ; but it is generally object¬ 
ed to them that they seldom have substance 
of body or bone enough to stand the pro¬ 
tracted chase, or to endure steady work, if 
they have to carry or draw any considerable 
weight. They are usually too narrow, flat¬ 
sided, and low before, want suppleness in the 
knees, and carry their feet too near the ground, 
(as “ daisy-cutters”—“ rasant le tapis") to be 
pleasant under the saddle, particularly in a 
trot; and they have often too great a devel¬ 
opment of the propelling hind parts for beauty 
in proportion at least to the forehand, and an 
excessive length of trunk, which is much 
coveted for extent of stride as one of the 
elements of speed.* These objections apply 
the more strongly to horses for quick draft, 
where generally greater robustness, size, 
and show in action are required than under 
the saddle. Lord Westminster now keeps 
besides famous old Touchstone, a young 
stallion (formerly run by Lord Palmerston) 
called Buckthorn, with whom, the head 
groom told me, the racing men found fault 
on account of the shortness of his back, 
which, though a great source of strength and 
a favorite point in “ useful ” horses, does not 
meet the requirements of the turf. 
Blood horses have had powerful and effec¬ 
tive advocates in the modern writers Nim¬ 
rod, Harry Hieover, and Cecil, who contend 
that they are the proper race to communi¬ 
cate the greater speed demanded at the pres¬ 
ent day, by the improved roads, the chase, 
the evolutions of armies, and the hurry of the 
world. This, with the importance attached 
to fixity of type, has produced a further in¬ 
crease of their number, and very generally 
caused them to be resorted to as the progeni¬ 
tors of Hacks (I mean gentlemen’s saddle 
horses), Hunters, Chargers (first class horses 
for military officers and cavalry), and even 
carriage horses of the lighter class, by part 
bred mares. The aim of the breeders is to 
produce hunters, as being the highest priced 
animals, averaging at Melton Mowbray £200, 
and fetching occasionally £1,100; and if 
they fail in that, by reason of want of sub¬ 
stance, to have a hack. Should the progeny 
be very strong, but destitute of the qualities 
of good hunters, they would probably answer 
in one of the other services mentioned. Be¬ 
tween thoroughbreds the attempt is always 
to breed racers ; but in the event of want of 
speed the colts become either hacks, or hun¬ 
ters in a light country if they have strength 
enough. About three out of every seven of 
the blood horses actually put in training as 
yearlings, in England, are permanently with¬ 
drawn from the turf, from want of merit and 
from constitutional inability to endure the 
severity of the probationary discipline at 
that tender age ; and, at a later period, 
many of them, the males especially, are dis¬ 
tributed among the various useful services 
to which they are respectively best adapted. 
In Yorkshire a farmer is, by an old proverb, 
commiserated if he has “ a lot of ugly 
daughters and blood fillies,” because they 
both are apt to remain on his hands a long 
*The stride of the renowned Boston at his bruising pace 
was twenty-six feet. 
