COCK. 



COFFEE. 



Guatimala and other parts of Central America, 

 where the temperature of the climate through- 

 out ten months of the year seldom falls so low 

 as 50 Fahr., the circumstances are peculiarly 

 favourable to the culture of the cochineal in- 

 sect. A large amount of the capital of the 

 country is invested in the necessary plantations 

 and fixtures. 



The true cochineal insect has been found in 

 South Carolina by the late Dr. Garden, and 

 Mr. Raphael Peale of Philadelphia also identi- 

 fied it on the island of Little St. Simons, coast 

 of Georgia. The Cactus cpuntia grows abun- 

 dantly on all the calcareous islands near the 

 Southern coast. Still it is not very probable 

 that cochineal will soon become an object of 

 culture in the extreme Southern States, as it is 

 an employment of a very tedious and fatiguing 

 nature, exacting more attention than the ma- 

 nagement of the silkworm, which last bids fair 

 to be a far more profitable resource. 



COCK (Sax. coec ; Fr. cog). A name applied 

 to the male of chickens and other birds. 



COCKCHAFFER (Melolonthavulgaru). One 

 of the common names for a species of European 

 tree beetle, whose food consists almost entirely 

 of leaves. They come rather late in the vernal 

 season, about May 20th, but occasionally ap- 

 pear at uncertain intervals in amazing swarms. 

 White says, they abound only once in three 

 years. They are also known by the provinri;il 

 names of May-bug, dor, and dummador. Cock- 

 chafters are sometimes used as baits in angling. 

 The larva or grub of the common cockchaffer 

 is one of the great ravagers of the English 

 meadows and grass lands. It remains in the 

 grub state for four years. "It undermines," 

 says Kirby, "the richest meadows, and so 

 loosens the turf, that it will roll up as if cut 

 with a turfing spade. These grubs did so much 

 injury seventy years ago to a poor farmer near 

 Norwich, that the court of that city, out of 

 compassion, allowed him 25/., and the man and 

 his servant gathered eighty bushels of the 

 beetles. The damage done by them in 1785 

 was so great in France, that the government 

 offered a reward for the best mode of eradicat- 

 ing them." The rooks are great friends to the 

 farmer in destroying this grub, to procure 

 which they follow the plough. (Kirby and 

 '> Introd. to Entomology, vol. i. p. 180.) 



COCK-FIGHTING. A very old and barba- 

 rous common pastime and amusement, which 

 is happily growing into disuse in civilized 

 England and America, and becoming super- 

 seded by more manly and noble sports. 



COCKLE, CORN, or CORN CAMPION 

 (Sax. coccel ; Lat. Agrostemma githago'). PI. 10, a. 

 A well-known troublesome annual weed, of 

 rather an ornamental appearance, growing in 

 grain-fields in summer, bearing purplish red 

 flowers. It stands two feet and a half high, the 

 stalk firm, hairy, slender, and round, with one 

 large flower upon each top. The leaves stand 

 two at a joint, long, narrow, and of a bright 

 green colour. The flowers, which are of a 



violet-purple colour, stand in a cup composed r ^ r , 



linear hairy sepals, which are longer than j who pretended that their flocks were more 

 the corolla. The seeds, which are numerous, lively after browsing on the fruit of that plant, 

 are black and rough, and nearly as big as I The use of coffee was soon rapidly spread, but 



343 



small wheat kernels; they are filled with white 

 flour, and very heavy. The miller's objection 

 to these seeds is, that their black husks break 

 so fine as to pass the boulters, and render the 

 flour specky; also because the seed is bulky, 

 and if there be much in the sample, it detracts 

 considerably from the produce in flour. Being 

 easily distinguished, this weed should be era- 

 dicated from the field by the hand before 

 flowering. (Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 325 ; 

 Sim-lair's Weeds, p. 9 ; Elements of Agriculture, 

 441 ; Willich't Dam. Encyr.) 



COCK'S-FOOT GRASS (Dactylis glonierata}. 

 PL 5, 6. Commonly called Orchard Grass in the 

 Middle and Northern States. A species of 

 grass, which, from the experiments of Sinclair, 

 appears to become by cultivation superior to 

 rye grass and some others as a pasture grass, 

 if kept closely cropped by cattle or the scythe; 

 and also when made into hay. Oxen, horses, 

 and sheep eat it readily. It flowers from June 

 till August, and perfects its seed in July. The 

 produce of herbage per acre, at the time of 

 flowering, is 27,905 Ibs., which affords of hay 

 11,859 Ibs., and the proportion of nutritive 

 matter is 1089 Ibs. The produce is something 

 less when the seed is ripe, and it loses about 

 one-half its weight in drying. See HAT GRASSES. 

 (>i/i//ar' Hart. Gram. p. 136; Smith' 

 Flora, vol. i. p. 134.) 



COCK-SPUR, A common name in Eng- 

 land for the Virginian hawthorn ; a species of 

 medlar. See HAWTUOBX. 



COCOON. The fibrous web round a chry- 

 salis. 



COD. A term used sometimes for pod. 



CODLIN. A well-known kind of baking 

 apple. See MALUS. 



COFFEE. The seed of a tree of the family 

 rubiacea. There are several species of the genus, 

 but the only one cultivated is the Cofftea Arabica, 

 a native of Upper Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. It 

 rises to the height of fifteen or twenty feet Its 

 trunk sends forth opposite branches in pairs 

 above and at right angles toeachother; the leaves 

 resemble those of the common laurel, although 

 not so dry and thick. From the angle of the 

 leaf-stalks small groups of white flowers issue, 

 which are like those of the Spanish jasmine. 

 These flowers fade very soon, and are replaced 

 by a kind of fruit not unlike a cherry, which 

 contains a yellow, glairy fluid, enveloping two 

 small seeds or berries convex upon one side, 

 flat and furrowed upon the other, in the direc- 

 tion of the long axis. These seeds are of a 

 horny or cartilaginous nature ; they are glued 

 together, each being surrounded with a pecu- 

 liar coriaceous membrane. They constitute 

 the coffee of commerce. 



It was not till towards the end of the fifteenth 

 century that the coffee tree began to be culti- 

 vated in Arabia. Historians usually ascribe 

 the discovery of the use of coffee as a beverage 

 to the superior of a monastery there, who, de- 

 sirous of preventing the monks from sleeping 

 at their noctural services, made them drink the 

 infusion of coffee upon the reports of shepherds, 



