192 • BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of her own and her unborn calf's support, to her great milk and 

 butter product. The strain, great in any case, is vasth* increased, 

 it should be remembered, in our artificialh- high-bred cows, who, in 

 their civilized condition, pour into their udders nourishment enough 

 for a dozen calves each, instead of the small sujjply really needed 

 b}' her one calf. It cannot be too strongly urged that in order to 

 save our best cows from death or injur}' from milk fever and garget, 

 all grain should be removed for a month or two before the period of 

 parturition ; nor should the cow during this month or two receive 

 all of the grass or haj- even that she would be willing to consume. 



Let the calf be removed from its dam at the end of forty-eight 

 hours and fed carefull}' by hand three or more times a day, about a 

 quart at a time, with milk warmed and diluted with skim-milk or 

 hot water ; at the end of two or three weeks, skimmed milk alone 

 warmed may be given up to six or eight quarts a da}'. The calf 

 should be encouraged to eat hay and whole oats, or grass and oats 

 as early as possible. 



Hand-fed calves should be compelled to take their milk slowl}'. I 

 know of no remedj' except this for the disorders called in England 

 "curd in the stomach," and in this coiuitry "acute indigestion." 

 Sometimes a leather teat is fastened into the feeding trough ; the 

 calf by sucking and pulling at this bit of leather strap not only 

 takes his milk more slowly, but gets it more thoroughly mixed with 

 saliva. 



The dairy suppl}- companies in England have on sale well made 

 metal pails in the bottom of which are rubber teats. One form of 

 these pails is called "Tucker's Patent Calf Feeder," and is sold, I 

 understand, by the Aylesbury Dairj' Company of London. The 

 wooden trough and leather strap soon sour and cause looseness of 

 the bowels, troubles which are arrested by the tin and rubber of the 

 Tucker pail, which brings the feeding calf nearest to the natural 

 method of taking its nourishment of any device I am acquainted with. 



Eighty Cent Butter. 



In order to make the best butter and the most of it. and in 

 the most profitable manner, everything about the stable and 

 milk house must be clean^ and fresh, and jntre^ and to accomplish 

 this the cows and their milk must be kept above ground. In 

 no other way can we obtain all of the fresh air, all of the light 

 and all of the freedom from dampness which both the cows and 



