JUNIOR NATURALIST MONTHLY. 



COWS. 



I. P, Roberts. 



"And blown by all the winds that pass 

 And wet with all the showers, 

 She walks among the meadow grass 

 And eats the meadow flowers." 



— From "The Cow," by R. L. Stevenson. 



In the Junior Naturalist Monthly for December, we talked about 

 horses and something was said about raising a calf. Now calves are 

 nearly as nice as ponies, if you become acquainted with them. The 

 other day I saw a calf that had long, rough hair and was all out of 

 shape because the owner did not feed and care for it as he should. 

 He had fed it cold skimmed milk or whey, with timothy hay but no 

 meal. It was in a stable where the snow and wind had not been kept 

 out by good walls. The stable was quite damp and had not been 

 cleaned and bedded for some time. When the calf drank the cold 

 milk in this cold stable, it shivered as though it had ague, stood with 

 its feet very close together, and arched its back almost like a rainbow. 

 It could not grow well, much less think of playing, when it was so 

 cold and hungry. 



Perhaps you have never raised a calf by hand. If you have plenty 

 of new, warm milk and a warm stable in winter, or one free from flies 

 in summer, it is an easy task to raise a calf and one can get lots of fun 

 out of it. At first you have to deceive the calf a little, because it 

 does not know how to keep its head down when feeding nor does it 

 know how to drink. Four to six quarts of milk will make a good 

 supper or breakfast. If you are not strong enough to hold the calf's 

 head down in the pail while fooling him with your fingers, you will 

 have to ask your father to help you. 



If the calf you are feeding is raised for beef, it may be kept quite 

 fat from calfhood until it is sold. But it may be that you want your 

 calf to become a milch cow, so that butter can be made from the milk. 

 If so, it will be better to feed it on skimmed milk. This skimmed 

 milk should be as warm as the new milk before it was milked. For 

 one or two weeks, feed the calf part new and part skimmed milk. 

 After that skimmed milk will do nicely if you also feed it a little 

 bright clover hay each day. At first it would be well to give it just a 

 little corn-meal with a pinch of oil-meal in it. If the calf has too 



