170 agriculture; of maine;. 



for best results in calf feeding. In fact, milk testing 5 per cent 

 butter fat is an abnormal milk and some warm water added may 

 be an advantage, but to put said milk through a modern sepa- 

 rator and feed the milk warm thinking it is an all sufficient calf 

 food, is simply nonsense. The stomach of an ox might digest 

 it, but the stomach of a calf will not as a rule; its digestion soon 

 weakens under the strain. Feed new milk and warm milk and 

 never allow the young calf to become exceedingly hungry. 

 Feed little and feed often until it is fully two weeks of age, and 

 many a case of scours will be averted. Then if the calf is 

 weakly, continue the new milk two weeks longer before any 

 warm skim-milk is mixed with the whole milk and the digestion 

 of many a calf will be saved that otherwise would be lost. A 

 choking down of many a dairyman's desire for milk is needed. 

 Another thought and I will close. Many a dairyman weakens 

 his cows and renders them fit subjects for disease by what I call 

 "push and pull feeding." By this I mean he feeds well when 

 the cow is milking and then feeds any old thing when she is dry. 

 It is the cow that is fed well all the time that stands up under 

 the strain of producing both milk and a living healthy calf yearly 

 into old age. It is the half fed, half nourished cow that goes 

 to an early grave from disease, simply because she has not the 

 power to resist disease germs. It is this kind of a cow and the 

 fairly well fed idle cow in a foul aired building where we find 

 tuberculous baccilla getting in their best work. Strike a happy 

 medium, Brother Dairyman of the State of Maine. Furnish 

 good food all the time from calf hood up ; furnish sunshine and 

 pure air with exercise in the open air when the weather will 

 permit and you will have better herds, and stronger herds, less 

 disease and less calls for the veterinary. Keep the calf growing 

 from its birth every day. When it reaches the age when 

 puberty is established, you need not fear to breed that calf 

 regardless of its age, but don't forget to feed it right along. I 

 do not mean by this that a heifer that it is desirable to grow 

 up into a dairy cow shall be kept in a condition fit for the 

 slaughter house from the time it is weaned up into motherhood ; 

 but I do mean to say that at no time should it be kept in a con- 

 dition whereby its vitality becomes weakened. There are scores 

 of instances after heifers are bred where they are turned into 



