THE COMMON OX. 541 



Columella speaks of a species of elm peculiarly adapted to this 

 purpose. Next to the elm, the Romans esteemed the leaves of 

 the common ash ; and Phillips says that in the north of Lanca- 

 shire it is usual to lop the ash to feed the cattle in autumn, 

 when the grass is declining, the cattle peeling off the bark. 

 The leaves of the birch afford excellent fodder for them. In 

 France, according to Loudon, the leaves of willows, either green 

 or dry, are considered the very best food for cows. Weston 

 says, that cows which are fed upon burnet, lucern, cabbage, 

 turnips, and carrots in winter, will yield more and better milk 

 than those which are fed upon hay during that season. " In 

 winter," says an old writer, " tares are the best feeding for 

 them j and hay and colestalks [cabbage stalks], with chaff, hay, 

 and chopped straw sodden together in water are also very good. 

 In some places they feed altogether with new threshed straw : 

 in many places they give them lupins steeped in water, or 

 chiches or peson [peas] mingled with chaff, besides the branches 

 and leaves of vines, the green branches of elm, ash, poplar, and 

 holm ; when other green food faileth in winter, the browsing 

 of oaks and holly will serve. Oxen are soon fat in good pasture 

 with wheat, rapes, apples, and radish 5 they and kine will be 

 passing fat where there wanteth pasture, by giving them meal 

 mixed with wheat, chaffe, and rapes, or grains."* 



In our days, the common fattening food of cattle consists of 

 Swedish turnips, mangel wurzel, cabbages, potatoes, grains, 

 bran, and oil-cake. Old Franzius says, " An ox is soonest fat 

 when by himself j but I am informed that the quickest way to 

 fatten him, is to wash him often with warm water, and feed 

 him with beans and elm boughs. Baptista was wont to give 

 his oxen those scraps of meat that came from his table, which 

 in a short time made them so fat that they could scarcely go."f 

 Mr. De Capel Brooke tells us that in Lapland and Norway, 

 the cattle are fed on fish, and they not only eat it greedily, 

 but thrive upon it. Horse-dung, when obtainable, is also boiled 



* Heresbatch's Husbandrie, translated byBarnaby Googe (1586), p. 128 b. 

 t History of Brutes, Englished by N. W. (1670), p. 103. 



