156 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



basket full of earth beside him while feeding in his 

 stall. A calf is bled once or twice before he is 

 killed, to make his flesh fair for the table. In 

 Lanarkshire he is fed for the last three days on 

 water-gruel, with the same intention. Butchers prize 

 less the calves that run by their mothers (" runners " 

 they term them) than those which are pampered 

 within. In Buenos Ayres, the main export trade of 

 which consists of hides, horns, tallow, and the like, 

 curious is it that while a full-grown beast will be 

 slain without compunction, for the mere sake of its 

 tongue, there is a law prohibiting the slaughter of 

 calves. Calves that you rear should be habituated 

 early to be tied up and handled. To this was attri- 

 buted the extraordinary gentleness of Bakewell's 

 bulls ; which a boy could drive anywhere with the 

 merest switch. 



Of course, you must avoid petting or playing with 

 them. They are just boys over again : be firm, but 

 kind, and you may do anything you please with 

 them. Be injudicious, harsh, unfair, and you ruin 

 their dispositions for ever. 



The cow breeds at a year old, and continues to 

 breed sometimes for sixteen or seventeen years. She 

 goes with calf nine months. The bull is used as a 

 yearling. Greedy people draw upon them even 

 earlier, but it is ruinous in the end. If he could be 

 left to three or four years of age, it would pay in 

 the offspring. Arrange that your heifers calve for 

 the first time in May, when there is an abundance of 

 green food for them. Some let the first calf suck 

 the mother throughout, with the view of making a 



