388 
Nutritive Value of Prickly Comfrey. 
lias not mucli engaged the attention of English agriculturists, 
but it appears to be extensively cultivated in several parts of 
Ireland. It was extensively cultivated by the late Bishop 
of Kildare in a field at Glasnevin, where the plant is still found, 
growing up as a persistent weed, in spite of every attempt to 
eradicate it. Many gentlemen, after the example of the Bishop 
of Kildare, who was a first-rate dairy-farmer, are reported to 
cultivate it in their villa or suburban farms around Dublin, and 
find it a very useful food for their dairy stock. 
At first cattle do not like it much, on account of the prickly 
character of its leaves ; but they soon get accustomed to it, and 
are said to do well upon the food. 
Its ordinary produce has been estimated by practical farmers 
at 30 tons per acre ; but in experiments made in Ireland, on Car- 
new Castle Farm, on a considerable scale, the produce is reported 
to have amounted to 82 tons per Irish acre in three separate 
cuttings — of 28^ tons in the middle of April, 31 tons in the 
middle of July, and 22^ tons in the middle of September. 
The prickly comfrey, as far as I am aware, has not been 
made the subject of careful analysis ; at any rate I do not find a 
record of any such analysis in any accessible agricultural publi- 
cation or scientific treatise, in which the chemical composition 
of agricultural productions is given in detail. 
Having had occasion to make a full analysis of the prickly 
comfrey, grown in 1869, in Oxfordshire, I here give the analysis 
in the hope that it may perhaps be of some use or interest to 
some one or other of the readers of this Journal. 
The general composition of the comfrey in the state in which it 
was received, and perfectly dried at 212^ Fahr., may be stated 
as follows : — 
General Composition of Prickly Comfrey. 
In Natural State 
Water 90-66 
*Xitrogcnons organic cuinpounds (flesh-forming) 2*72 
matters) f 
Non-nitrogenoiis compounds (heat and fat-| 4-73 
producing substances) j 
Mineral matter (ash) l"S-i 
100-00 
* Containing nitrogen -434 
In its natural state comfrey, it will be seen, contains a high 
percentage of water, and in that respect resembles green mustard, 
mangold and turnip-tops, varying with the soil and season, the 
treatment as regards manure, and the rapidity with which such 
green food is grown. The percentage of water varies to some 
extent, but it is seldom less than from 90 to 91 per cent. 
Calculated Dry. 
,, 29-i;d 
. 51-28 
,. 19-GO 
100-00 
4-66 
