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BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 255 
No. 22. — On the Results of Fodder-Analyses of Leaves of 
the Yellow- or Curled-Dock (Rumex crispus), and of 
Sprouts of the common Milk- Weed (Asclepias Cornutt). 
By F. H. Srorer, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry. 
In continuation of the work upon Weeds that are Used as 
Human Food, which was published in an earlier number of the 
Bulletin,* I have had analysis made of the common yellow dock 
of mowing fields, and of the familiar milk-weed or silk-weed (As- 
clepias Cornutt), both of which plants have been used as food not 
infrequently at one time and another in various parts of this 
country. ‘That is to say, in the lack of spinach and asparagus, 
the weeds were boiled and eaten as greens by our country people, 
as they doubtless are still eaten in many localities where no pains 
are taken to cultivate better vegetables. 
I have myself repeatedly heard one or the other of these prac- 
tices spoken of in different parts of New England, and there is no 
lack of printed statements to the same effect. Thus in respect to 
dock, Cobbet says t : — 
‘*T have frequently mentioned the leaves of this weed as being 
sold in the market of New York. . . . The dock (which is the wild 
rhubarb) puts forth its leaves very quickly after the dandelion ; 
and hence it is that it is resorted to as greens in the spring. 
It is however a coarse green compared with the dandelion. 
However, it is better than no greens at all after five months of 
winter, which has left nothing green upon the face of the earth. 
. .. The dock-leaf is very wholesome, as is also that of the dan- 
delion. ‘They do not produce gripings as the greater part of the 
cabbage kind are apt to do.” 
So, too, Darlington, in his ‘‘ American Weeds and Useful 
Plants,” New York, 1859, remarks that the radical leaves of the 
curled dock are often used as a pot herb or early greens. And 
the U.S. Dispensatory of Wood & Bache, 1867, p. 719, under the 
head of F. crispus says : — 
‘* The leaves of most of the species of dock are edible when 
young, and are occasionally used as spinage. ‘They are somewhat 
laxative, and form an excellent diet in scorbutic cases.” 
There is, indeed, small cause for surprise that dock leaves 
should be used as food in view of the close botanical relationship 
* Bulletin of the Bussey Institution, 2. 115. 
¢ As quoted in the ‘‘ New England Farmer,” 1828, 6. 251. 
