20 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



takes the bast amount of food to make a pound of growth ; 

 and, all things being equal, each succeeding pound of growth, 

 up to maturity of the animal, costs more than the preceding 

 pound. 



For the purpose of making beef, milk, or butter, it is not 

 absolutely necessary that the dam be a thorough-bred ; but 

 she should be a well-formed cow, with other desirable quali- 

 ties, and a thorough-bred sire should be used. The calf should 

 be dropped in the autumn months, and in forty-eight hours 

 taken from the cow, and fed with whole milk, say two or 

 three weeks, and for a week or two longer upon half whole 

 and half skimmed milk, and brought gradually to be fed 

 wholly upon skimmed milk. When a few weeks old, com- 

 mence to feed wheat-bran, gradually increasing to a quart a 

 day. A little linseed-meal is very desirable, furnishing another 

 variety ; a few roots chopped fine also will help to keep the 

 bowels in good order. If the calf is inclined to scour, give 

 him scalded milk and a handful of finely ground corn-meal. 



But in the opinion of the writer, excepting linseed-meal, 

 nothing is quite so good as milk and wheat-bran fed sepa- 

 rately. Upon five or six quarts of milk per day, one or two 

 quarts of wheat-bran, and a little hay, the calf can be cheaply 

 kept till grass, when, if allowed to run in a good pasture 

 through the summer, he will be as valuable as if born in the 

 spring, six months earlier, and reared at greater cost. Dur- 

 ing the second winter it is not necessary that an animal now a 

 little more than a year old have the best hay, but it can be kept 

 on a second quality of hay by continuing the use of the bran. 



As to the cost of the creature till two years old, we make 

 the following estimate : — 



Six quarts milk per day for three months (90 days), at 



1 cent 



Four quarts milk per day once a day for three months 



One quart bran per day, say 200 pounds 



Two hundred pounds hay 



Pasturing twenty-six weeks at 10 cents 



Cost at one year old 

 During the second winter one ton hay . 



Wheat-bran 



Pasturing twenty-six weeks at 16| cents 

 Cost at two years old 



$5 40 

 3 72 

 2 00 



1 50 



2 60 



$33 55 



