48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



should be vised to insure their tranquillity. Harsh treatment 

 exerts a very injurious action on the milk, rendering it less 

 buttery, and more liable to acidity. 



Respiration is a species of combustion. At every breath we 

 inhale oxygen of the atmosphere, which unites with and con- 

 sumes the carbon or fatty matter of the food. When cows are 

 worried or driven too rapidly, they breathe more frequently, 

 inhale more oxygen, and more of the buttery portion of their 

 food is consumed, leaving less to be converted into butyraceous 

 milk. 



Warmth is a substitute, to a certain extent, for food. Cows, 

 when warm and comfortable, will consume proportionally less 

 food, and it is well known to all experienced dairymen, that 

 their cows yield more milk in warm, pleasant days, or when 

 they have the run of a warm, well sheltered pasture, than on 

 cold rainy days, or when they run in cold, bleak pastures. 

 When cold they inhale more oxygen ; the result is a combustion 

 of more of the carbon or oily part of the food, and less remains 

 to supply the lacteal vessels with rich milk. 



It is thought by some that the best mode of treating a calf 

 the first year is the one most in accordance with his natural 

 habits, and that is to allow him to run with the cow six months ; 

 then wean, and feed the next six months upon hay or grass, 

 with roots, oatmeal, or gruel made of oil-cake, meal and water, 

 or some other rich and suitable food. By this treatment, we 

 get at one year of age a large thrifty calf, but unless full feed 

 is continued, the animal at the end of three years will be slightly 

 if any larger, and will cost more in proportion to value, than if 

 a more economical course of feeding had been pursued. And 

 even if full feed is provided until three years old, there may be 

 a reasonable doubt whether the cost of the animal at that age 

 will not bear a larger proportion to its value than if less expen- 

 sive treatment had been adopted ; in other words, whether an 

 animal fed at all times up to its utmost capacity, will return so 

 great a profit on cost as one fed more moderately, but at all times 

 kept in good condition until the time arrives for fattening. 



Milk is more valuable for other purposes than for feeding to 

 calves, and few of our farmers can afford to allow the calves 

 they rear for a future supply of stock, either to suck or drink 

 full milk for more than three or four weeks ; nor indeed is it 



