DIGESTION AND WINTER FEEDING. 47 



make butter for a living, cannot afford wet-nursing : it costs 

 too much. I would like to ask him if he has had any experi- 

 ence in feeding calves on skim-milk. 



Mr. BowDiTCH. If you are short of pasture and short of 

 fodder, of course you cannot use a wet-nurse ; but, if you 

 have plenty of pasture or fodder to feed a wet-nurse cow, I 

 think you can raise a calf as cheaply, in dollars and cents, 

 on a wet-nurse, — withoat taking into account the fact that 

 your calf will be much better at a year old, — as you can do 

 it by skim-milk. 



Mr. Sessions. If you raise two calves on one. cow, it will 

 make the calves cost thirty dollars apiece at six months old ; 

 and they are not worth more than fifteen dollars in the mar- 

 ket when they are a year old. 



Mr. BoWDiTCH. I feed my wet-nurse cows in winter on 

 the poorest fodder I have, sometimes a pinch of grain, but 

 very little. 



Mr. Sessions. You don't approve, I take it, of feeding 

 skim-milk at all to calves ? 



Mr. BoWDiTCH. It has been done. I raise a good many 

 calves on skim-milk. 



Mr. Sessions. I want to get at something that is practi- 

 cable for poor people, — for farmers who have not a great 

 deal of capital. 



Mr. BoWDiTCH. The skim-milk should be, in the first 

 place, perfectly sweet, and it should be fed with great 

 regularity, — not too much, as it will be likely to distend the 

 stomach ; and, taking it as quickly as they do, they are 

 uncomfortable, which leads them to suck eacli other's ears. 

 One important point is, to be sure to get the temperature 

 right. In New Hampshire and other parts of the country, 

 where they raise oxen and premium steers, they can afford 

 to put their calves on wet-nurses. They find that it pays 

 them very well to do it. 



Mr. Slade, In feeding calves on skim-milk, would you 

 put in any cotton-seed meal ? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. I have put in oatmeal and linseed-meal. 

 If the meal is put in properly, it does very well. Mr 

 Thorne of Thorndale, the well-known shorthorn breeder, 

 feeds linseed-meal to his calves. It is mixed with the milk, 

 and does very well. If you feed new milk for ten days or a 



