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MUSTARD

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 97 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MUSTARD . The varieties of mustard-See also:

seed of See also:commerce are produced from several See also:species of the genus Brassica (a member of the natural See also:order See also:Cruciferae). Of these the See also:principal are the See also:black or See also:brown mustard, Brassica See also:nigra (Sinapis nigra), the See also:white mustard, Brassica See also:alba, and the Sarepta mustard, B. juncea. Both the white and black mustards are cultivated to some extent in various parts of See also:England. The white is to be found in every See also:garden as a See also:salad plant; but it has come into increasing favour as a See also:forage See also:crop for See also:sheep, and as a See also:green manure, for which purpose it is ploughed down when about to come into See also:flower. The black mustard is grown solely for its seeds, which yield the well-known condiment. The name of the condiment was in See also:French moustarde, mod. moutarde, as being made of the seeds of the plant pounded and mixed with must (See also:Lat. mustum, i.e. unfermented See also:wine) .1 The word was thus transferred to the plant itself. When white mustard is cultivated for its herbage it is sown usually in See also:July or See also:August, after some See also:early crop has been removed. The See also:land being brought into a See also:fine tilth, the seed, at the See also:rate of 12 lb per See also:acre, is sown broadcast, and covered in the way recommended for See also:clover seeds. In about six See also:weeks it is ready either for feeding off by sheep or for ploughing down as a preparative for See also:wheat or See also:barley. White mustard is not fastidious in regard to See also:soil. When grown for a seed crop it is treated in the way about to be described for the other variety.

For this purpose either See also:

kind requires a fertile soil, as it is an exhausting crop. The seed is sown in See also:April, is once hoed in May, and requires no further culture. As soon as the pods have assumed a brown See also:colour the crop is reaped and laid down in handfuls, which See also:lie until dry enough for See also:thrashing or stacking. In removing it from the ground it must be handled with See also:great care, and carried to the thrashing-See also:floor or stack on cloths, to avoid the loss of seed. The See also:price depends much on its being saved in dry See also:weather, as the quality suffers much from wet. This great evil attends its growth, that the seeds which are unavoidably See also:shed in harvesting the crop remain in the soil, and stock it permanently with what proves a pestilent See also:weed amongst future crops. White mustard is used as a small salad—generally accompanied by garden See also:cress—while still in the seed See also:leaf. To keep up a See also:supply the seed should be sown every See also:week or ten days. The sowings in the open ground may be made from See also:March till See also:October, earlier or later according to the See also:season. The ground should be See also:light and See also:rich, and the situation warm and sheltered. Sow thickly in rows 6 in. apart, and slightly See also:cover the seed, pressing the See also:surface smooth with the back of the See also:spade. When gathering the crop, cut the See also:young See also:plants off even with the ground, or pull 1 There were two kinds of mustum, one the best for keeping, produced after the first treading of the grapes, and called mustum lixivum; the other, mustum tortivum, obtained from the See also:mass, of trodden grapes by the wine-See also:press, was used for inferior purposes.

Un Caprice was produced at the See also:

Theatre Frangais, and the employment in it of such a word as " rebonsoir " shocked some of the old school. But the success of the piece was immediate and marked. It increased See also:Musset's reputation with the public in a degree out of proportion to its See also:intrinsic importance; and indeed freed him from the See also:burden of depression caused by want of appreciation. In 1848 Il ne faut jurer de See also:lien was played at the Theatre Frangais and the See also:Chandelier at the Theatre Historique. Between this date and 1851 Bettine was produced on the See also:stage and Carmosine written; and between this See also:time and the date of his See also:death, from an See also:affection of the See also:heart, on the 2nd of May 1857, the poet produced no large See also:work of importance. See also:Alfred de Musset now holds the See also:place which Sainte-Beuve first accorded, then denied, and then again accorded to him—as a poet of the first See also:rank. He had See also:genius, though not genius of that strongest kind which its possessor can always keep in ;heck. His own See also:character worked both for and against his success as a writer. He inspired a strong See also:personal affection in his contemporaries. His very weakness and his own consciousness of it produced such beautiful work as, to take one instance, the Nuit d'octobre. His Nouvelles are extraordinarily brilliant; his poems are charged with See also:passion, See also:fancy and fine satiric See also:power; in his plays he See also:hit upon a method of his own, in which no one has dared or availed to follow him with any closeness. He was one of the first, most See also:original, and in the end most successful of the first-rate writers included in the phrase " the 1830 See also:period." The wilder See also:side of his See also:life has probably been exaggerated; and his See also:brother See also:Paul de Musset has given in his Biographic a striking testimony to the finer side of his character.

In the later years of his life Musset was elected, not without opposition, a member of the French See also:

Academy. Besides the See also:works above referred to, the Nouvelles et conies and the Euvres posthumes, in which there is much of See also:interest concerning the great tragic actress See also:Rachel, should be specially mentioned. The See also:biography of Alfred de Musset by his brother Paul, partial as it naturally is, is of great value. Alfred de Musset has afforded See also:matter for many appreciations, and among these in See also:English may be mentioned the See also:sketch (189o) of C. F. See also:Oliphant and the See also:essay (1855) of F. T. See also:Palgrave. See also the monograph by Arvede Barine (Madame Vincens) in the " Grands ecrivains See also:francais " See also:series. Musset's See also:correspondence with See also:George See also:Sand was published intact for the first time in 1904. A See also:monument to Alfred de Musset by Antonin See also:Mercie, presented by M. See also:Osiris, and erected on the Place du Theatre Francais, was duly " inaugurated " on the 24th of See also:February 1906.

The ceremony took place in the See also:

vestibule of the theatre, where speeches were delivered by Jules See also:Claretie, See also:Francois See also:Coppee and others, and Mounet-See also:Sully recited a poem, written for the occasion by See also:Maurice Magre. (W. H.

End of Article: MUSTARD

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