DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 243 



at night This quantity was increased gradually to twelve 

 pounds per day. After two weeks the milk was fed twice daily. 

 Since the calf is a very greedy animal, there is often a great 

 temptation to give it more milk than it can properly handle, 

 thus causing scours. Over- feeding is undoubtedly one of the 

 main reasons why so many farmers fail in raising good calves 

 on skimmed milk. 



The milk was always fed warm and sweet. Had it been im- 

 possible to have the milk sweet all the time, it would have been 

 fed sour every meal. It is possible to raise a good calf on sour 

 milk, but it is not possible to raise a good calf by feeding sweet 

 milk one meal and sour the next. 



Since the advent of creameries, the raising of calves on 

 skimmed milk has been a subject of vital importance to every 

 creamery patron, and one of growing importance to every pri- 

 vate dairyman. When calves six months old are worth from 

 $25 to $30 a head, and when the profits of a good dairy cow are 

 »so greatly enhanced by raising the calf on skimmed milk, it is 

 i\^astly important that we know how, first, to raise a No. i calf 

 and second, how to accomplish this result through the medium 

 of skimmed milk. 



When the calf was eight days old, the feeding of skimmed 

 milk was begun. The stomach of a calf is delicate and sensi- 

 tive, and any change of feed should be made gradually. The 

 change to skimmed milk was made gradually, substituting one 

 pound of skimmed milk for one pound of whole milk, until at 

 the end of the twentieth day a S/traight skimmed milk ration 

 was fed. Clean, sweet skimmed milk was always fed, and to 

 each allowance a teaspoonful of blood meal was added as a 

 preventive of scours. The skimmed milk was gradually in- 

 creased until the calf was getting twenty pounds a day. This 

 was the maximum amount fed. Skimmed milk may be fed to 

 calves as long as there is an abundance of it. Good cows have 

 been produced from calves that had skimmed milk only four or 

 five weeks of their life, while equally good cows have been pro- 

 duced from calves that had skimmed milk for ten or twelve 

 months. There is no doubt that prolonged feeding of skimmed 

 milk will produce a coarse, thick skin, which will disappear with 

 the leaving off of this feed. 



When two weeks old the calf was fed its first grain. At first 



