580 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



soils. It is probably never necessary to sow buckhorn, 

 as more or less seed is usually mixed with grass and clover 

 seeds, and where once established the plant spreads abun- 

 dantly by its seed. While the plant is justly condemned 

 as a troublesome weed in lawns and elsewhere, its value 

 for pasturage should not be overlooked. 



695. Prickly comfrey (Symphytum asperrimum) is a 

 perennial herb native to the Caucasus region. The plant 

 has a large taproot 8 or 9 feet deep ; stems 2 to 4 feet high ; 

 leaves oblong, large, rough, sometimes a foot or more long ; 

 flowers tubular, bright-blue, nodding in one-sided clusters. 

 The plant is hardy, withstanding the winters in Ontario 

 and succeeding well in most of the United States. 



It was introduced into England as early as 1801 as an 

 ornamental, and beginning with 1830 has from time to 

 time been praised as a forage plant, especially to furnish 

 green feed for hogs, sheep and cows. 



The seed of prickly comfrey is not very satisfactory, 

 so the plant is usually propagated by divisions of the crown 

 or by sections of the taproot. On rich soil with intensive 

 cultivation prickly comfrey may be cut green from 3 to 

 6 times in a season, and the yield is said to range from 

 10 to 50 tons of green matter to the acre. The plants 

 are long-lived and are said to produce abundantly for 

 15 to 20 years. 



The plant has been tested by a number of experiment 

 stations, but has never come into much use in America. 

 Yields have been reported by various American experi- 

 ment stations in green matter to the acre as follows : 



Ontario Agricultural College, 9| tons in 4 cuttings ; 

 New York (Geneva), 14 to 16 tons; Vermont, 46 tons ; 

 North Carolina, 6J to 17 \ tons ; Wisconsin, 33 J tons. 



Even with these large yields comfrey can hardly compete 



