OK, totally off topic but about a cow and cabbage! First thing, cows have three "stomachs" so they can put away an incredible amount of food then digest it later.
I was born on a farm. A starvation farm, 40 acres. Dad did about a half dozen things or more to make ends meet including hiring out his huge two row tractor! The farm house burned down, mysterious circumstances in the middle of a feud but that's another story. Four children drank a lot of milk so dad bought a milk cow with a crossbred calf by her side. First day Clover was brought home we all fell in love with her. Dad was proud of his garden. Among other things that year he had planted four rows of iceberg cabbage several hundred feet long. Sweet and tasty, a head of raw cabbage was often an afternoon treat!
To make friends with the cow which had just been a pasture cow my oldest sibling, my sister, had the bright idea to gather some of the loose leaves of cabbage and hand feed her. Worked great, she was gentle as an old dog anyway! Now we have connected the cow and the cabbage. The calf, Billy, was born mean and us children made him far worse!
Clover had a sweet tooth for cabbage from the first taste on that first day. We spent hours petting her and riding her. She was also the source of toys. She almost always had one or two of the huge black horse flies on her. Catch them and carefully tie a piece of thread around their neck and we flew them around in circles like a model airplane. Horsefly necks aren't too strong and when one got the bright idea to cut across the inside of the circle and hit the other end of the thread it was time to find a new horsefly!
I wouldn't think cabbage smelled that strong but then again, I am not a herbivore. Clover would get out of her few acre pen and make a bee line for the cabbage patch a couple hundred feet or more away! It was amazing to watch her walk between two rows of cabbage. She walked at a constant pace and her head swung back and forth in rhythm. She would move at a steady walk and take one bite out of every head of cabbage as she went by, she didn't miss a head or take two bites out of one, she was a harvesting machine! Dad was less than thrilled. That cabbage was a major food source, not a toy crop although dad like most gardeners gave away far more than we ate.
Clover got out of the pen fairly often and when she did she made a beeline for the cabbage! Soon every head of cabbage had one bite out of it and she always took up where she left off, never taking a bite out of a head she had already taken one bite of until she had covered the patch. At three I had started getting up at the first gray of predawn and exploring what was new in my world. First thing I did was check to see if Clover was in the garden. If she was I would rush over and get her back in her pen before dad woke up a little later and got mad!
I barely reached her belly and she paid me about as much attention as she gave Billy but insistent pushing on a front shoulder or her chest would eventually persuade her to leave the garden. I would be barefoot of course but fortunately the ground was soft. My feet got stepped on often in these efforts but they were mostly just mashed into the dirt or mud. A good thing, Clover was huge. Some of my earliest memories were how much it hurt when Clover stepped on a toe or foot and just stood there!
Every time I hear or say, "like a cow eats the cabbage" I get a quick image of Clover walking through the garden with her head moving back and forth like a metronome not missing a step or a head of cabbage!
So now those that have read through this massive sidetrack know, a cow is an awesome cabbage harvesting machine! The saying is based on solid fact.
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