FEEDING GROWING ANIMALS 353 



from the milk, the non-nitrogenous compounds are 

 probably not present in sufficient proportion to protect 

 the protein from waste as fuel. No feeding-stuff appears 

 to be a more efficient amendment of skimmed milk for 

 the earliest feeding than flaxseed meal cooked into a 

 porridge. The explanation of this is the high percentage 

 of oil in this meal, its low content of starch, and its high 

 rate of digestibility. Besides, it appears to promote a 

 healthy condition of the organs of digestion. Oil meal 

 may be used in its stead, but it is less desirable at first. 

 The calf should be allowed whole milk for a few 

 days, not necessarily more than a week, when it may 

 be gradually changed over to skimmed milk and flax- 

 seed meal. An admirable mixture is prepared by cook- 

 ing the flaxseed meal in water in the proportion of one 

 to six by volume, and adding a small amount of this 

 (the equivalent of three or four tablespoonfuls of the 

 dry meal at first) to eighteen or twenty pounds of warm 

 skimmed milk, which may serve as a day's ration. The 

 quantity of meal should be gradually increased up to one 

 pound a day inside of a few weeks. In six or eight weeks 

 the calf should be allowed access to dry oatmeal, or oat- 

 meal and wheat middlings, or the oatmeal and middlings 

 may be boiled with the flaxseed meal and mixed with the 

 milk. After ninety days the flaxseed meal may be dropped 

 for the sake of economy. The calf will soon appreciate 

 a wisp of early cut hay, some coarse food becoming 

 a necessity before many months pass. This method 

 of feeding has repeatedly produced rapid growth and 

 fine animals. For heifers it is probably to be preferred 

 to whole-milk feeding, as it is fully as conducive to the 

 vigorous development of the muscular system and is less 

 likely, perhaps, to promote a tendency to lay on body fat. 

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