COLTS-FOOT. 



wheat, but this has been in particularly favour- 

 able seasons. 



The spring colza should not be sown as late 

 as the rape, as its growth is much slower. "In 

 one -very favourable year," says Dombasle, 

 "when I had sown colza on the 2d of June, it 

 did not arrive at maturity soon enough to admit 

 of being harvested." 



After the soil has been well prepared by two 

 or three ploughings, the seed may be sown 

 broad-cast, at the rate of 7 or 8 Ibs. per acre 

 on very light ground, covering it with the har- 

 row. Some sow the colza in drills eighteen 

 inches apart, and till between the rows with a 

 horse-hoe. But, in general, cultivation, which 

 is so beneficial to winter colza and rape, pro- 

 duces but a poor effect on a crop which occu- 

 pies the soil so short a time. 



- COMFREY, COMMON (Symphytum officl- 

 nalc). This wild plant grows by the sides of 

 ditches and in moist places to a height of three 

 feet. The leaves are a deep green colour, 

 pointed, long, and rough to the touch. The 

 stalk is green, thick, and upright, and winged 

 at the bases of the leaves. The flowers are 

 sometimes white, and often reddish in colour. 

 The root is thick, black externally, and white 

 within. It is full of a slimy juice when crushed 

 or broken. The root is the part used medici- 

 nally. It contains much mucilage, and may 

 be used as a demulcent. Conserve of comfrey 

 is the best way of preserving it through the 

 year. The tuberous-rooted comfrey (S. tubero- 

 suni) is an herb of much humbler stature than 

 the last-named root ; knobbed and branched ; 

 externally whitish ; flowers fewer, drooping, 

 yellowish-white, tinged with green. (Smith's 

 Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 263.) The prickly com- 

 frey (S. asperrimum) is a hardy perennial of 

 gigantic growth, introduced from Caucasus as 

 an ornamental plant, in 18L1, by Messrs. Lod- 

 diges, of Hackney. (See Curtis's Bot. Mag. No. 

 929.) The attention of the agriculturist has 

 recently been directed to the cultivation of 

 comfrey as green food for cattle, by Mr. Grant, 

 of Lewisham, who speaks highly of its merits. 

 (Baxter's dgr. Lib.) 



COMPOSITION FOR TREES. See CAN- 

 KER. 



COMPOST (Fr.; Lat. composition). That 

 sort of manure which is formed by the union 

 or mixture of one or more different ingredients 

 with dung, or other similar matter. An excel- 

 lent essay, by Mr. James Dixon, on making 

 compost heaps from liquids and other sub- 

 stances, written on the evidence of many years' 

 experience, was awarded a premium of 10/. in 

 July, 1839, by the Royal Agr. Soc. of England, 

 and is published in their Quart. Journ. vol. i. 

 p. 135. See also FARM-YARN MANURE. 



CONDITION (Fr. and Lat.). In horseman- 

 ship, a term supposed to imply a horse's being 

 in a state of strength and power, so much above 

 the purpose he is destined to, that he displays 

 it in his figure and appearance: this, according 



Taplin, signifies "fine in coat, firm in flesh, 

 in s-pirits, and fresh upon his legs." 



CONIFEROUS PLANTS AND TREES. 

 Such plants and trees as bear cones ; as the 

 fir, pine, cedar, &c. 



CONSERVATORY (Lat.). A glazed struc- 

 350 



CORD-WOOD. 



lure, in which exotic trees and shrubs are 

 grown in a bed or floor of soil. It is distin- 

 guished from an orangery by its having a 

 glazed roof, while that of the latter is opaque, 

 and from a green-house by the plants being set 

 in the fine soil, instead of in pots placed on 

 shelves. The largest conservatory in the world 

 at the present time (close of 1841), is that 

 erected in Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, for palms 

 and other tropical plants, which covers above 

 an acre of ground, and is sixty feet high. 

 (Branded Diet, of Science and Art.} 



CONTRACTION OF THE HOOF.. In far- 

 riery, is a distorted state of the horny substance 

 of the hoof in cattle, producing all the mis- 

 chiefs of unnatural and irregular pressure on 

 the soft parts contained in it, and consequently 

 a degree of lameness which can only be cured 

 by removing the cause. Contraction of the 

 hoof rarely happens, however, except to those 

 animals whose hoofs, for the convenience of 

 labour, are shod. 



CONVERTIBLE HUSBANDRY, or mixed 

 husbandry, a term implying frequent change in 

 the same field from tillage crops to grass, and 

 from grass back to tillage crops ; an alterna; 

 tion of wheat, rye, &c., with root and grass 

 crops. 



COOP, or COUP (Icel. kuppa; Dut. kuype). 

 A provincial name for a tumbrel or cart, en- 

 closed with boards to carry dung, sand, grains, 

 &c. It is also a pen or enclosure where lambs, 

 &c., are shut up to be fed or fattened ; and a 

 kind of cage in which poultry are enclosed for 

 the same purpose. 



COPPICE, or COPSE (supposed from the 

 Fr. couper- or Nor. copper, to cut off). Low 

 woods cut at stated times for poles, fuel, &c. 

 A place overrun with brushwood. Its wood is 

 called coppice-wood. 



CORDGRASS (Spartina stricta. From spar- 

 tine, a rope made of broom). A genus of pe- 

 rennial maritime grasses found in muddy salt 

 marshes on the sea coast, of which this is the 

 only native variety. They are very easy of 

 culture, and increased by divisions and seeds. 

 Roots, creeping, with strong fibres ; whole 

 plant, hard, tough, and rigid; stems ten to 

 twenty inches high, several together ; leaves, 

 numerous, striated, of a dull green colour and 

 smooth. (Eng. Flora, vol. i. p. 135 ; Paxton's 

 Bot. Diet.) 



Spartina juncea. According to the experi- 

 ments of Sinclair, this grass is very late in the 

 production of foliage, and inferior in nutritive 

 qualities to most other kinds of grass. It, how- 

 ever, yields well as a single crop, the produce 

 from a rich, silicious, sandy soil ; at the time 

 of flowering, being 33,350 Ibs., which afforded 

 of nutritive matter 1433 Ibs. It has been tried 

 for the purpose of forming into flax ; and Sin- 

 clair tells us, the results were favourable, inas- 

 much as the clear fibre was equal in strength 

 and softness to that of flax, but it was deficient 

 in length. The only advantage that appears 

 would result from this plant affording flax is, 

 that it could be produced on a soil unfit for the 

 growth of flax or the production of corn. It 

 flowers the second week in August, and the 

 seed is ripe by the middle of September. (Hort, 

 Gram. Wnb. p* 373.) Three or four species of 





