Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-13
CALIFORNIA MUSTARD FARM
It is the Only One in the United
States.
How the Crop is Raised and Harvest
ed-Growing Plant Presents
Pretty Sight.

From the San Francisco Chronicle
| Lompoc, in Santa Barbara county, in this
state, grows mustard for the whole coun-
| try. The sauce piquant of a nation is COM
pressed in that one county, and in the
spring the fields of brilliant canary yellow
and of brown are sights for tourist eyes, as
\ the pungent odor of millions of mustard
| flowers is grateful to their nostrils
In this region 1000 acres are cultivated
| to the seed, the industry employing about
| 200 farmers. No one employs himself ex-
! clusively in cutivating the plant because Of
| its refusal to yield two successive crops
upon the same land. Accordingly the mus
| tard raiser can only devote a part of his
| farm to it each season. The land from
which he harvested his crop this year must
| next year be planted to beans or barley,
corn, pumpkins or beets: Indeed. results
show that 1t pays to skip two years in
planting mustard and only turn the soil to
| its use every third season. What active
principle there is in the soil that is with
drawn by this eXacting plant to the lands
impoverishment has not yet been deter
| mined. the mustard industry never having
arisen into sufficient prominence to move
| the agricultural chemist of the state to a
study of the problem. When it Is solved
however, and the salt or other chemical
| necessary to supply to the soil the extract
| ed ingredient is identified. undoubtedly the
growing Of mustard will become a promi-
nent industry in California.
At present it is a comparatively unknown
| industry, though mustard has been raised
| in Lompoc valley for nearly eighteen years.
Attention was first drawn to the possibility
| of growing it by the abundance of wild
mustard on the hills and in the valley
sweeps through many parts of Santa Bar
bara county. An Englishman named Davis
| is credited with having recognized this
| weed as being identical with a most trouble
some and persistent plant in England which
shows particular penchant for cornfields
running
and in early summer rendering them vel
| low with its blooms.
The land selected for mustard growing
lies in the middle of the valley and along
the banks of the Santa YneZ river. The
sell is deep sediment. dark and almost en-
tirely without grit. Some mustard is grown
on light sandy loan, but the heavier soil
is preferable, as 1t not only produces larger
crops, but is not so feeble after the crop is
removed Indications of rain are import
ant, as 1t is almost useless to sow mustard
for growing during a dry winter. 1t re-
quires plenty of water and cool weather
in the ripenins and pod-filing season. 1t is
for this reason that the Lompoc district is
so adapted to it's growth: being close to the
sea-. it is visited during much of the year
by heavy fogs, which roll in every night
and precipi.ate little rains in themselves
besides keeping the hot sun away from the
land and providing the GOODNESS so much re-
quired by the mustard.
The soil being selected 1t is broken up
Immediately after the first rain of the
season. 1t is cultivated from time to time
to keep it open and to keep the weeds and
grass down until about the middle of Jan
uary, when 1t is sown to brown called also
Trieste, mustard. If it is proposed to plant
IL to the yellow variety the sowing NAV
be deferred until March.
Inc seed is Sown broadcast, with the
hand, from three and one-half to four
pounds being distributed to the acre. 1t is
then narrowed in the ordinary way The
mustard presents a pretty sight while grow
ing, especially when young and at this
stage II makes an excellent salad, having
a Pheasant, pungent flavor The white va
riety is often sown in England for mus
tard greens, which are used in place of
spinach. and is also used as food for sheep
after the turnip and rape crops have
proved failures, the plant being of rapid
grown and the proverder fairly nourishine
and good. The Lompoc crops, however, are
never turned to these uses, the ultimate
product being the only thing in view: as
the brown variety produces the most per
yellow.
The mustard stalk is straw colored. grow
ing from three to five feet in height and
bearing Its characteristic flowers. 1t bears
an oblong pod from an inch to several
inches in length. and contains one row of
seeds. When the plant is mature and the
seeds are ripe, the hull of the pod becomes
brittle.
The harvesting is done with a self-raking
reaper This cuts the stalks and throws
them up in punches, where they are left to
cure in the sun, the gathering taking place
in late summer. when the fogs have dis
appeared. When dry the stalks are collect
ed in header wagons and are hauled to some
central place where they are dumped upon
a large burlap sheet, 5OX5O feet in size. |
Here the stalks are run over by a large and
heaVy roller, drawn by two horses. These
rollers are of two patterns, one consisting
OF a drum about ten feet long and four feet
nlSh, revolving upon axle fixed in a
frame to which the horses are hitched the
other being series of half a dozen disks |
separated from each other by about two
feet of space, these being adjusted on an
axle in frame as is the other OF the two
the disk roller is probably the best as it |
breaks the stalks and stirs up the heads |
with more general confusion than does the |
straight roller. Upon both of these instru- |
ments the driver sits, and the disk roller |
carries two men.
The roller having thoroughly gone over
ana broken up the stalks, the straw is then
rt.ked off with hand rake and left upon |
the sheet, a mass of seed and chaff This |
is quickly heaped into pile by simply lift |
ing up the edges of the cloth and turning |
Its contents toward the center fan is |
then brought INTO requistion and the pile |
run through. This separates the light,
loose material from the heavier seed, which
fails to the bottom and is received by an |
ether part Of the cloth |
The product is then the understandable |
seed. 1t is fine stuff. looking almost like
grains of gunpowder and reminding one OF |
the biblical parable which declares it to be |
the least of all seeds: but when it is grown |
II is the greatest among herbs.' 1t is SHOW
eled into sacks. which hold from ninety to |
nlrety-six pounds each, and is then shipped |
mostly to San Francisco, although some
goes east.