DIGESTION AND WINTER FEEDING. 45 



Before I tried raising my calves on wet-nurses, my attention 

 was called to four or five valuable calves that were not grow- 

 ing, and were troubled with diarrhoea, which could not be 

 stopped in the ordinary way. I inquired of the man who fed 

 them if he was feeding at the same temperature as usual. 

 He said he was. I found him on his way to feed the calves, 

 and put my fingers into the pail. I said, " You are not 

 feeding at the proper temperature." Although the milk 

 felt quite warm, it proved to be at eighty, instead of ninety- 

 five or ninety-six, as it should have been. 



There is one difficulty which you obviate by bringing up 

 your calves on wet-nurses. I suppose we are all troubled 

 in the same way when we bring up on the pail, — that 

 the calves suck each other's tails and ears, and make them 

 selves very disagreeable, and disfigure themselves ; and in 

 cold weather, by wetting the calf's ears, you are very likely to 

 have that part frozen, and may lose it, as has happened to 

 me. There is no way of stopping that, that I know of, 

 absolutely ; but bringing the calf up on a wet-nurse is a great 

 help. Of course, the reason that a calf sucks is, that the 

 milk has not been properly mixed with the saliva ; the calf, 

 being always hungry, drinks very fast, swallows it down, and 

 digestion does not begin properly : the calf is in trouble, and 

 must get hold of something, and try to get the saliva down 

 to meet the milk, instead of having it go down with the 

 milk, as nature intended. A little oil-meal, or, better still, 

 perhaps, a piece of broken oil-cake, put into the calf's mouth 

 as soon as he gets through drinking from the pail, will very 

 often start the saliva, and the calf will amuse itself in that 

 way, and let its companions' ears alone. If you try that a 

 few times, the calf gets fond of the oil-meal, and will go on 

 and feed himself, and you do not have to put it in his mouth. 



Mr. Phikbrick. Have you ever used oatmeal for feeding 

 calves ? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. Yes, sir : I have always given my calves 

 bruised oats, and I encourage them to eat all they can. I 

 raise my calves on the principle that any thing that is worth 

 doing at all is worth doing as well as you can. If you want 

 to bring your children up well, you give them the most nutri- 

 tious food you can think of; and the same rule holds good 

 with regard to the raising of calves. I find, that, in raising 



