134 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE). 



production by feeding the mother, before the calf comes into 

 the world. I will take up that with the feeding of the dry cow, 

 a little later in my talk. We must bear in mind when we are 

 starting the dairy calf, that it is to be a future producer in the 

 herd. 



The first thing which the calf does after it comes into the 

 ■ world is to take a meal. The first milk which the cow gives, the 

 colostrum, is purposely arranged for this calf. It is a natural 

 laxative. It is dififerent from the ordinary milk in that it con- 

 tains more solids and less water ; and chemically it is quite dif- 

 ferent from the ordinary milk. After four or five days the milk 

 begins to change to the normal, and in about ten days it is entire- 

 ly normal. We like to leave the dairy calf with its mother about 

 two days. I do not care whether the calf ever takes its food 

 from the mother or not, provided it gets this first milk. The 

 calf takes its food more slowly when taking it from its mother, 

 and the digestive juices of the stomach have a chance to mix 

 with the milk more thoroughly and hence more complete diges- 

 tion results. But a little later, when the milk becomes normal, 

 it is too expensive to allow the calf to eat directly from its 

 mother, using this whole milk which contains butter fat worth 

 from 33 to 36 cents a pound. So, at the end of a day or two, 

 the calf is removed from its mother, or perhaps we had bet- 

 ter say the mother is removed from the calf and put back into 

 the stable. She is pleased to get back with the other cows and 

 scarcely misses the calf. The calf's only mission seems to be 

 to eat, and if the supply of food which it naturally gets from its 

 mother is provided, then the calf does not miss its mother. We 

 commence to teach the calf to drink immediately, usually taking 

 its mother's milk. If the milk is very rich in butter fat it may 

 cause difficulty and we will have to partially skim it or use the 

 milk of some other cow. That occurs occasionally but not gen- 

 erally. In starting we want about four pounds of milk, varying 

 it with the size of the calf. It is a peculiar thing that the calf 

 at this age will not take the same amount of milk from the pail 

 as it would from the dam and get along all right. There is 

 more danger, more trouble, with many of our dairymen, in over- 

 feeding their calves at this time than in under feeding them. We 

 know that when the calf takes its milk naturally from the moth- 

 er, it takes it several times a day. That is very well ; but when 

 we feed the calf several times a day, the milk must be warmed 



