COST OF REARING A CROSS-BRED 235 



seems to be rather dear, and the cooking of it requires 

 great care being taken that the water used in mixing is quite 

 boiling, else calves fed on it scour and get thin in condition. 

 Much less milk than that stated above is often made to 

 suffice. The milk from one Ayrshire cow, aided by artificials, 

 has been known to rear sixteen calves in one season ; and in 

 the summer of 1884, a good Shorthorn cow, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Horsham, supplied all the milk given to twenty-four 

 Shorthorn cross calves. This is carrying the use of milk 

 substitutes rather far, when separated milk is to be had at 

 extremely moderate prices, and when such milk dried by the 

 Just-Hatmaker process (see p. 699) and fortified with a 

 digestible oil can be secured wholesale to supply calf feed, 

 which, on being prepared by the addition of water at blood 

 heat, will cost only 2d. per gallon. However useful sub- 

 stitutes may be when an animal is a few weeks old, there is no 

 doubt that to follow Nature's plan of feeding mostly on milk 

 in the early stages of the life of a calf is the most economical. 



Estimated Cost of Rearing a Cross-bred Calf for 

 Feeding Purposes till it is Two Years Old. 1 



Calf at birth, say . . . . . . .200 



Summer, 6 months. 



Grass and milk for 4 months : 



ist. If suckled, mother, 2 acres at 203. 

 ind. If hand-reared, milk, etc. 



To 2s. 6d. per week for 16 weeks . . .200 



Young grass or foggage (and cake for 2 months) : 



Say \ acre at i per acre . . . ^o 10 o 



Cake . . . , . . 076 



-- o 17 6 



A calf at 6 months would cost . . . . 4 17 6 



(If worth ^5, ios., profit I2s. 6d.) 

 Wintering, 180 days. 



Turnips, j cwt, i^d. per day . . . ^126 



By Dr Shirra Gibb, Boon, Lauder, N.B. 



