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The Country Gentleman' s Magazine 



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PRICKLY COMFREY AS A FODDER PLANT. 



TO those who would wish to possess an 

 addition to their list of readily-grown 

 fodder plants, the prickly comfrey offers 

 many advantages, and as some ten years ago, 

 says a writer in Bell's Messenger, we ex- 

 perimented rather largely upon its growth, 

 we venture to give the results of our ex- 

 perience. 



Comfrey is a member of the natural order 

 Boragmece, which includes a number of 

 native plants, all of which, as Sir J. W. 

 Hooker states, " are mild, emollient, and 

 mucilaginous" sometimes bitter and narcotic." 

 The well-known borage — Borago — so cele- 

 brated for its invigorating flavour in the 

 " cool tankard," Hooker tells us is named 

 from cor, the heart, and ago, to bring; hence 

 the old adage, " I borage always bring 

 courage." Like the subject of our present 

 remarks, borage has a juice, the taste and 

 odour of which is much like that of the cucum- 

 ter, and hence perhaps its relishable quali- 

 ties, whether infused in our cups, or as eaten 

 for food by the lower animals. 



The Syinphytum asperrimiim, or prickly 

 comfrey, was originally introduced into this 

 country by the Messrs Loddiges as early as 

 1811, its bright blue bell flowers and fine 

 foliage seeming to recommend it as a showy 

 adjunct in the shrubbery or larger flower 

 border. Somewhere about 1850 it was re- 

 commended to the farmer as' a green soiling 

 plant capable of affording a large quantity of 

 nutritive and relishable food, especially good 

 for cattle. 



Being at the time anxious to test its 

 value, we procured a quantity of sets, which 

 were planted in a moist but not over good 

 soil on a substratum of the Forest Marble. 

 Our original stock by division soon afforded 



sufticient sets to plant a considerable patch 

 which was done in rows two feet apart, and 

 one foot between each plant in the row. This 

 was done in early spring. In summer we 

 had fine succulent plants, more than a yard 

 in height, which soon put forth their racemes 

 of bells, varying in hue from a bright azure 

 to a reddish purple. 



In this state we cut it down and tried it 

 with the milch cows. They ate it greedily, 

 and used to follow us about the fields, as 

 it were, begging for it, and it seemed that it 

 was not only highly relished by these, by 

 stall cattle, and pigs, but with all kinds of 

 stock it seemed to act most favourably. 



Seeing, then, the interest attached to this 

 experiment, some of the plant of our crop 

 was analyzed by Dr Voelcker, the results of 

 which we quote from his essay " On the 

 Chemistry of Food : — 



Now this shows comfrey to be not inferior 

 to some other green foods, and if we take 

 into consideration the large crop it is capable 

 of yielding — we estimated it at 45 tons per 

 acre — it really would seem to be not un- 

 worthy of attention. In the article just 

 quoted the learned analyst remarks : — 



" In its fresh state comfrey contains still 

 more water than white mustard ; but not- 

 withstanding this large proportion of water 

 the amount of flesh-forming substances is 



