DIGESTION AND WINTER FEEDING. 43 



I will briefly allude to the feeding of calves. It is well 

 known, especially among milkmen, that a calf does not 

 always have the amount of milk that it would best thrive 

 on : it is necessary to substitute something to save the milk. 

 The only substitute that I have ever tried for milk, in such 

 a case, is hay-tea ; and hay -tea, to be good, as the doctor has 

 said, must contain a little milk. You can, however, carry a 

 calf along with two quarts of milk a day, if the tea is made 

 of good material. I have done that repeatedly ; but I would 

 rather have three quarts, and would be a little better pleased 

 with four. Four quarts of milk a day will carry a calf along 

 in a very fair condition. It is better, however, to let the calf 

 suck for several weeks, as the doctor has told us, that the 

 food may be mixed with the saliva ; and the calf will thrive 

 better. But it is frequently the case, especially with the 

 men who are selling milk, the demands of whose customers 

 are imperative, that the calf must be pinched ; and in that 

 case it can be carried along in the way I have suggested. 



Mr. Slade. Will you tell us how to make hay-tea ? 



Mr. Hadwen. Hay-tea should be made of the very best 

 hay, — early hay, cut when the grass is in its most succulent 

 condition. 



Mr. Slade. Would you take rowen ? 



Mr. Hadvten. I would rather have the early-cut hay, not 

 so much cured as rowen should be. The simplest way to 

 make the tea is this : Suppose you want to make tea for the 

 calf to-morrow morning. You take the hay to-night, and 

 turn upon it a sufficient quantity of boiling water to extract 

 its nutriment. That should remain in the vessel until the 

 next morning. Then you may warm it, or add warm milk 

 to it, enough to bring it up to the temperature suitable for 

 the calf, which is perhaps a little more than ninet}^ degrees. 

 The tea should be made in the morning for feeding at night, 

 in order to give sufficient time for the water to extract the 

 nutritive qualities of the hay. That is about the whole of 

 it, as far as our practice is concerned ; and we have practised 

 feeding hay-tea for a good many years. 



I have always noticed that milkmen's calves are not quite 

 as good as some others ; that is, they are not show calves. 

 They are never suitable to exhibit for premiums ; but when 

 they are one, two, or more years old, they come up as well as 



