Prickly Conifrey as a Fodder Plant 



;5i 



considerable. The juice of this plant con- 

 tains much gum and mucilage, and but little 

 sugar." 



From these data we cannot help thinking 

 that comfrey would be likely to form a good 

 summer feed with cake, corn, and pease, and 

 such like dry food, for stall-fed beasts. 



But our experiments did not end here, for 

 while operating upon this Caucasian visitor, 

 it struck us that the purple variety of our 

 common ditchside native Syniphytiun officinale^ 

 common comfrey, if not the same, at any 

 rate, was a closely-allied species. We, there- 

 fore, procured some sets of these from the 

 ditches, and planted them as we had the 

 others, and to our delight we found the 

 petals get more blue, and the plant to assume 

 the size and foliage of the S. asperrbnum, and 

 it too was relished by cattle the same as its 

 congener, and, curiously enough, on report- 

 ing the result of these experiments to the 

 members of the British Association, the Rev. 

 J. L. Jenyns, in the course of the discussion 

 upon the subject, remarked that the "the S. 

 aspcrrimum and S. officinale were growing to- 



gether near Bath, and that it was impossible to 

 distinguish the one from the other." It is 

 highly probable, then, that we have in our 

 wild comfrey a plant which might become of 

 great value if brought into cultivation, and 

 more especially in a season like the one we 

 have just experienced. The roots of the 

 comfrey strike deep, and if would seem that;, 

 although its habitat is by the ditch side, it 

 will bear field treatment remarkably well. 

 The best way to grow comfrey is from slips 

 or division, as it grows several crowns from 

 a single root. These are best put in in 

 autumn, but, failing this season, they may 

 be planted as soon as their leaves begin to 

 shew, in well-dug or deeply-ploughed land, in 

 which they will soon grow away. When it 

 is about 2 feet high it may be used as a 

 soiling plant — a second, and even a third 

 cutting being possible from the same patch 

 in a single summer. 



Digging in a little rotten manure between 

 the plant in autumn or spring will increase 

 the crop, which, our own trials shew, may 

 be continued for several years. 



HORN AND CORN. 



AN Abstract of Statistics as to the acre- 

 age of land in Great Britain under 

 wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, and hops ; and 

 the number of cattle, sheep and pigs in the 

 country up to the 25th June has been 

 issued. 



The stock returns show what the majority 

 of the people would scarcely have believed. 

 The foot-and-mouth disease was working 

 sad havoc in the country for several 

 months before June ; pleuro-pneumonia was 

 by no means infrequent — meat went up 

 enormously ; consequent, it was said, upon 

 the scarcity of cattle and of sheep. Through- 

 out all the year it has been complained that 

 we had no stock sufficient to graze cur pas- 

 tures ; throughout the season all travellers 

 interested in agriculture, with their eyes open, 



could observe that the grumbling of the 

 British grazier was not without cause. There 

 were by far too few " deep-uddered kine ' 

 and oxen, cropping the knee-deep grass, on 

 the banks of quietly gliding rivers, or in im- 

 memorial permanent pastures. The stock, 

 we were told, could not be procured ; and 

 that this was the truth any one who cared to 

 test it, by venturing into the principal 

 markets of the country, could have 

 seen for himself. In the report made by 

 Mr Fonblanque in February of this year 

 he deplored the decrease in the numbers of 

 cattle and of sheep which had been going on 

 for some years. Natural enough was the 

 thought, looking at the appalling reports we 

 have had about the epidemic from nearly all 

 counties and districts in Great Britain, and 



