CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



from giving as much milk by the third week as 

 the calf will take. Some feeders give eggs in 

 addition to milk two or more eggs daily. The 

 shell is broken, and the egg is placed over the 

 root of the tongue. When the allowance of milk 

 is what the calf will drink, chalk should be added 

 occasionally one quarter to half a pound weight ; 

 this assists digestion. The calf intended for 

 slaughtering should be kept dark, confined in 

 little space, and receive no other food than milk. 

 Whiteness of flesh indicates that the feeding 

 has been only milk. The common practice of 

 slaughtering calves a few days, and sometimes 

 only hours old, should be legally suppressed. In 

 France, where upwards of two millions of calves 

 are annually slaughtered, calves cannot be ex- 

 posed in the metropolitan markets till they are 

 five weeks old. 



Calves to be reared should have abundance of 

 milk for the first four weeks, and that the milk of 

 a cow newly calved. After four weeks, linseed 

 or linseed-cake gruel should be allowed not 

 mixed with the milk, but given at a different 

 time; the one diet of milk, the other of gruel. 

 Hay or grass may be hung up within reach, and 

 cake finely broken placed in a trough before the 

 calf. As the animal takes to the gruel, cake, and 

 grass, the milk should be gradually withdrawn, 

 care being taken so to maintain condition, that 

 the plumpness of the well-nursed calf is not lost. 

 After the calf eats grass freely, it may, along with 

 others, be turned out to a small paddock, but 

 housed during the night. If a male, and not 

 intended to be reared as a bull, it may be castrated 

 when one month old, a west wind and a mild 

 temperature being chosen for operating. Heifers 

 are now seldom spayed ; the operation is difficult 



Modes of Feeding. 



The cow, after recovery from calving, requires 

 an abundance of food, to keep up the secretion of 

 milk. The feeding should be regular, from morn- 

 ing to night, and water must be offered at proper 

 intervals, if the animal has not the full liberty of 

 drinking out of a pond or running stream. 



Regarding the nature of the food of cows, 

 although soiling, or artificial feeding in the house, 

 is at all times economical, there can be no doubt 

 that the best milk, butter, and cheese are pro- 

 duced by cows fed on natural pasture. Permanent 

 pastures are to be preferred. Those lands having 

 a damp and saline bottom produce the most 

 suitable food. On inclosed farms, it is the custom 

 of many to keep their cows out both night and 

 day from May till the end of October, so long as 

 a full bite can be obtained ; while others bring 

 them into the house twice a day to be milked. In 

 moorland and uninclosed districts, they are put 

 under the charge of a herd through the day, and 

 are brought into the byres during the night. In 

 either case, exposure to wet and cold, or to extreme 

 heats, should be guarded against. 



Soiling, or feeding entirely in the house or 

 court-yard, is seldom practised. Partial soiling 

 is occasionally resorted to, by serving out a con- 

 siderable quantity of rich green food to the dairy- 

 stock in their stalls at night and during the heat 

 of the day. This mode of feeding is more 

 especially followed when the pastures begin to 

 fail ; the second crops of clover and first crop of 

 tares, cabbages, and other farm-produce, are all 



636 



given to the cows in the house at this period. In 

 the best-managed dairies in Scotland, when the 

 cows are taken in for the winter, they are never 

 put out to the fields until spring, when the grass 

 has risen so much as to afford a full bite. In the 

 moorland districts, however, they are put out to 

 the fields for some hours every day when the 

 weather will permit. In these districts, the winter 

 food is marsh-meadow hay, occasionally straw, 

 with turnips, boiled chaff, and other refuse from 

 the barn. In the best dairy-districts in England, 

 the cows are fed principally on hay during the 

 winter and spring months. In the vale of 

 Gloucester, &c. the number of acres required for 

 hay equals the number depastured, about 150 

 stones of hay being produced on the acre. A 

 small portion of roots, turnip, mangold, white 

 carrot, is allowed by most dairy-farmers. Cows 

 in milk have the turnips sparingly supplied. 

 When they are milked, a small piece of nitrate of 

 potash is placed in the milk-pail ; the milk as it 

 flows from the udder dissolves the nitrate this 

 removes almost wholly all traces of the peculiar 

 taste of the turnip. 



Where convenient, the cows should be changed 

 from one field to another. Eight days is the 

 longest period they should remain in the same 

 field. Some dairy-farmers prefer to shift the cows 

 daily, grazing in one field during the day, the other 

 during the night, the cows returning to the byres 

 to be milked morning and evening. The study 

 at all seasons when the cows are in milk should 

 be, to provide an abundance of food, succulent, 

 varied, and nutritious; The Scottish adage con- 

 veys a great deal of truth ' What gangs in at the 

 mou (mouth) maks the guid milk coo (cow).' 



Milking. 



Cows are milked twice or thrice a day, according 

 to circumstances. If twice, morning and night ; 

 if thrice, morning, noon, and night They should 

 not go too long unmilked, for, independently of the 

 uneasiness to the poor animal, it acts injuriously 

 on the secretion of milk. 



The act of milking is one that requires skill ; for 

 if not carefully and properly done, the quantity of 

 the milk will be diminished. To insure a con- 

 tinuance of the flow of milk, it should, therefore, be 

 thoroughly drawn from the cows until not a drop 

 more can be obtained. Cows should be soothed 

 by mild usage, especially when young ; for, to a 

 person whom they dislike, they never give their 

 milk freely. The teats may be washed clean 

 before milking ; and when tender, they ought to 

 be fomented with warm water. If there are any 

 sores, lard should be rubbed on the palm of the 

 hand, and afterwards on the teats. The milking 

 and management of the cow should be intrusted 

 only to servants of character. In the majority of 

 the counties of England, it is a common practice 

 to employ men to milk the cows, an operation 

 which seems better fitted for women, who are 

 likely to do the work in a more gentle and cleanly 

 manner. In Scotland, the office is exclusively 

 confined to women ; so capriciously do customs 

 seem to vary. 



Milk. 



Milk is ascertained to be composed of numerous 

 elements, being in composition similar to blood 

 and flesh, the proportion of water being greater. 



