46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



calves on wet-nurses, they will keep on sucking until the cow 

 weans them : sometimes it may be ten months, and some- 

 times it may be eleven months. I have a calf now that is 

 only three weeks old ; and it begins to eat its bruised oats 

 and a little oil-meal besides, — having a very good allowance 

 of milk, — and also begins to eat a few roots, and will pick a 

 little bit of hay. 



Mr. Russell. Do you find that the use of a wet-nurse 

 leads to rapid growth and early development ? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. Yes, sir. I do not agree with Mr. Had- 

 wen, that, if a Jersey calf is allowed to have all the milk it 

 will take from a wet-nurse, it will cause the coarseness of 

 bone that he suojsrested. I think that comes in the breed. 

 A great many people say they do not want their dairy calves 

 to be highly fed, because it will create a tendency to take 

 on fat rather than to develop into the wedge shape, which is 

 supposed to be the shape for a dairy cow. Now, in the tests 

 that I have made with my own cows, in making butter, I 

 find that a cow, when she comes into new milk in a higfh 

 state of flesh, will give, perhaps, not more milk, but more 

 cream, and will make more butter, and I think a better 

 quality of butter, than she will when she comes in in thin- 

 ner flesh. 



Question. What kind of hay is best for calves the first 

 winter ? 



Mr. BoWDiTCH. The nearer vou can come to grass, the 

 better, — the second crop, or very early-cut first crop. I 

 think we are all tending to make our first crop very nearly 

 ecjual to rowen. Most farmers, I think, would like to finish 

 haying on the 4th of July, instead of beginning on the 5th, 

 as we used to. I always try to finish on the 4th. 



Dr. Wakefield. We have had the philosophical and 

 physiological discussion of this subject. Will Mr. Bowditch 

 give us the practical, and tell us how we can winter feed so 

 that a cow shall give as much and as good milk as when she 

 is on grass ? 



Mr. Bowditch. The first thing is to have the proper 

 material to do it with. 



Mr. Sessions. It seem to me, that, although we may all 

 agree with what Mr. Bowditch has said about the best way 

 of raising calves, those of us who live in the country, and 



