BRITISH OXEN. 101 



on being placed on a mixed food of hay, chopped straw, beet-root, and pota- 

 toes, they regained their flesh, and vicldod the same quantity of milk as at 

 first. 



It is a vulgar notion that the butter-cup, or crow-foot, abounding in meadows, 

 is the cause of the butter having sometimes a bright yellow color. Still ingfleet,. 

 in his Observations on Grasses, says he believes this to be a mistake ; for he 

 never could observe that any part of the plant was touched by cows or any other 

 cattle. The proof that cuws do not eat this acrid plant is strikingly visible id 

 pastures, Avherc, though all the grass is cropped to the very roots, numerous but- 

 tercups spring up, flower, and shed their seeds in perfect security. They are in- 

 deed cut down, and made into hay, together with the rest of the weeds that usu- 

 ally infest every meadow, and in ibis state are eaten by the cattle, partly because 

 they are incapable of separating them, and partly because, by drying, their acri- 

 mony is considerably subdued ; but there can be no doubt of their place being 

 much better supplied by any sort of real grass ; for the excellence of a meadow 

 consists in its producing as large a crop as possible of agreeable and nutritious 

 herbage. Every butter-cup ouglit, therefore, to be extirpated, if practicable, along- 

 with the hemlock, kex, and other umbelliferous plants Avhich are common in 

 most fields. Linnteus, in his Flora Lapponica, p. 195, says lliat it was thoutrht 

 by some people that the marsh marigold made tbe butter yellow, but he denies 

 that the cows ever touch that plant ; yet he thinks that all kinds of pasture will 

 not give that yellowness; then he observes that the best and yellowest butter 

 that he knows, and which is preferred by the dealers in those parts to all other 

 butter, was made where the cow-wheat grew in greater plenty than he ever saw 

 it anywhere else. Mr. Edwin Lees mentions an instance of seven cows having 

 been poisoned by feeding upon the common meadow-saffron {Colchicum autum- 

 nale) in a field at LlanVihangel Pentre, South Wales, where it grew in great pro- 

 fusion. The farmer turned them into the meadow in the early sprincf, after a 

 winter's feeding on hay, and, being impatient for green food, they devoured this 

 plant, and were all found dead next morning.* A valuable cow belonging to Mr. 

 William Morrow, of Drumkcrrin, near Armagh, died from being overfed with, 

 frosted turnips, and, after being turned out, drinking copiously of cold water. — • 

 Practical farmers and veterinarians assert that tbe essential oil of turpentine, in 

 doses of two fluid ounces, or a common wine-glass full, administered in any mild 

 fluid, acts as a specific in all such cases. 



From the late Earl Spencer's observations on the period of gestation of seven, 

 hundred and sixty-four cows, it appears that it extends to two hundred and 

 eighty-four days, not two hundred and seventy days, as formerly stated. As all 

 high-bred animals have a natural tendency to degenerate, if not kept up by due 

 intermixture of blood, it is very desirable to know in what manner the breed may 

 not only be kept up to its standard, but also improved. Hitherto there has not 

 been a sufficiently extended and carefully conducted series of experiments upon 

 this subject; and, consequently, there are no positive data on record enabling us 

 to determine, by comparative proximity with the legitimate zoological standard 

 of the species, the probability of permanence in any particular breed. [7.] 



In improving the form of cattle, it is necessary to select a well-formed cow, 

 proportionally lartrcr than the bull. j\Ir. Cline, speaking upon anatomical prin- 

 ciples, says that the Ijase of the cone which forms the chest of a cow should be 

 capacious, to aflbrd the lungs suflicient room, and thereby promote the digestive 

 powers of the animal, (thougli the Devonshire cattle are often deficient in their 

 chest ;) the liips and the twist should be broad, that the cavity for the fanus may 

 be sufficiently large ; the breadth of the loins is always in proportion to that of 

 the chest and the pelvis ; the head should be small, and the length of the neck 

 should be proportioned to the bight of the anima!, that it n)ay collect its food 

 with ease ; the muscles and tendons should be large, to enable it to travel with 



(7;. These are views and opinions we have long maintained on this subject, and have hence 

 expressed the apprehension that for want of experience and continued attention, imported cat- 

 tle of improved, and more especially of made-np artificial races, would be apt to degenerate 

 in this country. [Ed. Farm. Lib. 



* The Naturalist, vol. i. p. 215. 

 (24.'5) 



