144 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



In raising a calf on skim-milk, it should be allowed to suckle 

 from its dam at least a week, and as much longer as the con- 

 venience of its keeper may call for. When taken from the cow 

 at that early age it should be fed on the whole milk of its dam 

 till three weeks of age, the quantity varying from seven to ten 

 pounds (three to four quarts), according to size of calf, twice 

 a day. Much care must be exercised at this time that the quan- 

 tity is the same each feed, since any irregularity at this tender 

 age is quite sure to cause trouble of some kind and interfere 

 with the thrift of the calf. 



At three weeks of age a change to skim-milk may be started 

 by withdrawing one-quarter of the ration of whole milk and 

 substituting a like quantity, at the same temperature, of skim- 

 milk. After two or three days' feeding, another quarter of the 

 whole milk may be withheld and substitution made as before. 

 In this way at about five weeks of age the calf may safely be 

 put on a ration of entire skim-milk, and without any danger of 

 damaging disturbance of the digestive apparatus. 



At about this age the calf will begin to chew some straws of 

 fine hay ; second-crop clover is the best. Place a wisp within 

 its reach, where it will remain sweet and clean. Remove each 

 day all not eaten and renew with a fresh supply. Beside the 

 hay place a handful of whole oats, in a clean box. The natural 

 instincts of the calf begin to crave something to chew, and it 

 will learn to take the whole oats more readily than ground grain 

 of any kind. Besides there is no better grain feed for a grow- 

 ing calf than oats. 



The skim-milk ration may be continued at the option of the 

 feeder. In my own practice, I usually feed till five months of 

 age. 



I do not find it desirable or necessary in raising calves in this 

 way to feed grain of any kind to any considerable extent, and 

 never more than perhaps a handful of oats a day. If ground 

 grain feed of any kind is fed to milk-fed calves it never should 

 be mixed into the milk, but instead fed dry in a separate box. 



Spring calves — March, April or May — should not be turned 

 to pasture the first summer. They will thrive better held at 

 barn and fed on dry hay. The practice often seen of hitching 

 calves out while young to get a bite of green grass is all wrong 



