540 THE COMMON OX. 



tops of furze, on the leaves of willows, of the elm, ash, privet, 

 bird-cherry, birch, and of other trees. It is a common notion 

 that the crow-foot, which grows abundantly in many meadows, 

 is eaten by cows, and imparts a yellow colour to the butter 

 hence, indeed, the plant's other name of butter- cup. Stilling- 

 fleet, in his Observations on Grasses, expresses his belief that this 

 is all a mistake, for he " never could observe that any part of 

 that plant was touched by cows or any other cattle." Linnreus, 

 in his Flora Lapponica, says that some people believed that the 

 marsh-marigold made the butter yellow, but he denies that the 

 cows ever touch that plant, while he admits that all kinds of 

 pasture will not produce that yellowness -, and he adds that the 

 best and yellowest butter he ever saw, and which was preferred 

 by the dealers, was obtained from the milk of cows that had 

 fed where the cow-wheat grew more plentifully than he had 

 ever seen it any where else. Phillips, in his Sylva Florifera, 

 says that in some of even the good dairy- countries, the ash- 

 tree is seldom suffered to grow in the pastures, as it is thought 

 that if the cows eat of its leaves, the butter will be rank ; and 

 which is said always to be the case with the butter made about 

 Guildford, Godalming, and some other parts of Surrey, where 

 this tree abounds. But he observes that the correctness of this 

 is doubtful, as there is no bitter taste in the ash-leaves ; and he 

 has frequently remarked that a good housewife has made 

 excellent butter, when her neighbour, on the opposite side of 

 the hedge, could not eat her own churning. 



It has been observed that old pastures near the bases of 

 mountains, which always contain among the grasses an inter- 

 mixture of various mosses, afford excellent food for milch cows, 

 the milk proving both plentiful and rich ; and such mossy 

 pastures are said to fatten cattle more readily than recent 

 artificial pastures. 



The Romans considered the leaves of the elm as the best 

 fodder for cattle. Evelyn mentions, that in some parts of 

 Herefordshire elm leaves are gathered in sacks as fodder for 

 them, and adds that those of the female elm are preferable. 



