100 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



weather with insufficient nutriment. If this is a good way for the young animal, why not 

 apply the same practice, comparatively, to our children ? If scanty nourishment and expos 

 ure strengthens the constitution, why not carry out the principle where it will have a still 

 more beneficial result ? 



The result of this most pernicious practice is too often seen in thin, unsteady-gaited calves 

 in spring, whose constitutions have been thus strengthened (?) to the last degree of tenuity. 

 Such thin animals are supposed to gain faster on the sweet early grass of spring ; whereas they 

 will require two months to regain their plump full weight, and two months more to reach 

 the point they should have attained at the coming of spring grass. It is a most important 

 point that the calf should never lose the thrift it possessed as a sucking calf or, as it is some 

 times expressed, should never lose its calf -flesh. &quot;When the calf is to be grown for beef, this 

 view would seem to be too clear to require argument. The shorter the time required for the 

 animal to reach the market weight of 1,300 to 1,600 Ibs., the greater must be the profit upon 

 its market value. Every period of slow or defective growth is a clear loss in feeding. All 

 the food consumed during these periods is thrown away, as compared with a system of feed- 

 ign which aims at a constant progress in growth and ripening from the first day of life to 

 market maturity. 



The assimilation of the calf is excellent when receiving the milk of the dam, whether 

 this is new milk or skimmed milk. The secretions of the system are then in the most active 

 state, and it is of the utmost importance that this active growing habit should be kept up; and 

 to do this the food must be appropriate and sufficient for all the wants of the system. The 

 digestion of the healthy calf is strong and active, and it is not difficult to continue this rapid 

 growth through the winter, if a full ration is supplied. If the calves are exposed to the low 

 est temperature of the season, they must be fed extra food to counteract the effects of such 

 exposure. It is difficult to keep up the full rate of growth, under such circumstances, in the 

 coldest weather. 



&quot;We regard it as very bad economy to winter calves in the open air where the tempera 

 ture goes very low. It is true that the best feeding may bring them through in respectable 

 condition even there, but the expense is greater than the cost of shelter. Calves may be 

 made comfortable in the West, where barns are scarce, under sheds covered overhead and on 

 the sides with bundles of corn stalks properly fastened, or with straw or prairie grass. Such 

 sheds will very thoroughly break all wind, and make a warmer shelter than a loosely boarded 

 barn. 



The calf should have the most nutritious food to carry it through the first winter. 

 Farmers would find it most profitable to provide early cut grass, nicely cured, or a second 

 cutting of grass or rowen for their calves. This hay, only second to good grass, will be 

 eaten with a good appetite, and, with a small grain ration, will cause calves to grow rapidly 

 through the first winter. Clover, cut just before blossoming, is an excellent food for calves. 

 It has a larger percentage of muscle-forming food at this early stage of growth, and is also 

 more palatable. But it is quite unprofitable to winter calves upon poor hay, straw, and corn 

 fodder. If such coarse fodder is the best the feeder has, he may still bring his calves through 

 in fine condition by feeding a proper grain ration. With such poor fodder the best addition 

 is one quart of oil-meal, and two quarts of oats and corn, ground together. These three 

 quarts, mixed and given in two feeds, make a day s ration to each calf. Oats may oe fed 

 unground, and are well digested by calves. We have found calves to digest unground corn 

 much better than older cattle. Linseed oil meal has a most salutary effect upon the health of 

 the calf, keeping its digestive organs in excellent condition having, in fact, the same appar 

 ent effect upon the stomach as tender grass. If the feeder cannot get oil-meal conveniently, 

 then a good combination is one-third each of corn, oats, and wheat bran, the two former 

 being ground four pounds of the mixture for a day s feed. 



