On Green or Fodder Crops. 
141 
Another purpose for which green maize has been recom- 
mended, is to supply dairy herds with an accession of green 
forage at a period when the autumn pastures begin to fail. 
Feeding cows with o-reen maize has been lately under con- 
sideration in France. M. Genay gives his experience in this 
matter. With proper manuring he got as much as 155,000 kilo- 
grammes of maize per hectare (62 tons per acre). He says the 
cows don't take to this fodder very well. They have to be gradu- 
ally habituated to it, bv mixing the maize at first with bran and 
oilcake. But in a few days they will eat enormous quantities of 
maize alone so long as it is green and tender. They are previ- 
ouslv fed about three months with clover alone. " Now, when- 
ever the maize regime is fairly started one notices three things : 
the quantity of milk diminishes ; likewise the proportion of the 
cream to th« milk : and less butter is obtained from the milk. 
The butter, too, becomes white, like that of winter. These 
effects are more pronounced as time goes on. They may be 
counteracted with a little bran and oilcake." M. Genay finds it 
still advantageous to sow a certain quantity of maize, because 
in years with a very dry summer, this fodder may prove a 
valuable aid in the maintaining of the cows. 
Pbickly Comfeey (^Symphytum asperrimum). 
Never surely were there so many conflicting opinions as to 
the value of any crop for agricultural purposes as of this. Mr. 
H. Doubleday, of Coggeshall, Essex, has written of it, that " four 
or five cuts of 20 tons each to the acre may be taken when the 
plants are fully established, and they will last for twenty years 
if the ground is kept clean and occasionally stirred." But against 
this the following statement of Mr. T. R. Hulbert, of North 
Cerney, may be set in opposition : " I believe prickly comfrey 
to be quite a delusion. It wants very good land, plenty of 
dung and attention, and no stock will eat it if they can get 
plenty of other food." This is pretty nearly confirmed by the 
subjoined testimony of Mr. Sewell Read, who, it will be seen, 
urges other objections against the plant. 
Mr. Read says : — 
" I have a small plot of ' Prickly Comfrey,' planted four years ago. It did 
nothing the first year, but after a good manuring in the second season it was 
cut three times, and yielded a large produce. Last year it only produced two 
crops, and this season only one came to mow, and I ran the .sheep over the 
second growth, which I did not consider worth cutting. No stock appear 
fond of it, the leaves are tiresome to collect, and the plants difficult to keep 
clean, and costly in the first instance. My comfrey is planted upon a calca- 
reous clay, and I certainly shall not extend its culture, for I am confident 
that lucerne will produce twice the weight per acre of a more nutritious, and 
certainly more palatable fodder." 
