oow. 



(TUPUNO. 



Nothing is more prejudicial than the Oat that medicines are 

 try to keep oow* in health ; and the practice of keeping advertiied 

 medicine* at hand to gire to an animal whenever it is fancied to be ill, 

 i very detrimental to their hralth. Attention to food and exercise, 

 giving the Brit regularly and in moderate quantities at a time, and 

 allowing the oow to oae her own judgment as to the latter, are the 

 great secret* of health ; and a healthy young cow reared at home, or 

 purchased of a conscientious dealer, will probably live to old age with- 

 out erer baring had any ilbnair A oow in old and unprofitable win n 

 he reaches twelre or fourteen yean. She should then be sold and a 

 young one purchased. If the cottager hare the mean* of rearing 

 cow -calf to succeed the old mother, be will do well ; if not, he must 

 lay by a portion of the cow's produce every year to raise the difference 

 between the value of the old oow and a young one. The saving bank* 

 are admirable institution* for thU purpoee : a few shillings laid by 

 when the pro-luce of the cow i* greatest, will soon amount to the sum 

 required to exchange an old one for a younger. 



Calf. The rearing and fattening of calves is a very important part 

 of rural economy, and on the care with which this is done depends 

 much of tin- profit of gram-lam! in particular situations. In the dairy 

 district* tin- milk is so valuable, that calves are got rid of as soon as 

 pmwiMtt. In some countries they are killed when only a few days old, 

 and the flesh is of little value, being very soft and tasteless. In others 

 the flesh of very young calves is considered unwholesome, and penal- 

 ties have been imposed on those who kill a calf before a certain age. 

 This is the case in France and Switzerland, where ten days is the 

 earliest time at which a calf is permitted to be killed for Bale. 



Wealth and luxury have introduced a very different mode of pro- 

 reeding in England. Calves are suckled with great care, and allowed 

 to take as much milk as they can \v.-il1<>vr. in order to make them fat, 

 and their flesh white, firm, and delicate. The price at which a fat calf 

 is sold, when ten or twelve weeks old, is often much greater than lie 

 would fetch at twelve months, if reared in the common way. It is 

 chiefly in the neighbourhood of large towns that the practice of fat- 

 tening calves is profitable. The calf-dealer buys calves in the dairy 

 districts, and sells them again to those who suckle them. The animals 

 are carried to a great distance in carts made purposely flat and shallow, 

 their four feet tied firmly together, and their heads hanging over the 

 back and sides of the cart. In this ]>osition they remain whole days 

 without food or drink, and when they arrive at the place of sale they 

 are so weak and attenuated that many of them die ; and all of them 

 require the greatest care and attention for several days before they 

 recover sufficient strength to bear their natural food. If they are 

 allowed to satisfy their appetite at first they invariably tcour, that is, 

 purge violently, and die. If the strong astringent medicines sold in 

 the shops for the scouring in calves is given to them in this weak state, 

 it only accelerates their death. The best remedy is to boil the milk 

 for them, and give them little at first ; to mix some starch or arrow- 

 root with it, and to give them a raw egg beat up in milk. This re- 

 stores the strength of the stomach, and generally cures them. When 

 the calf begins to thrive on the milk which he sucks, or which is given 

 him warm from the cow, nothing more is necessary than to keep him 

 extremely clean and dry, to give him plenty of air, but not much light, 

 and never to disturb him between his meals, which are generally twice 

 in the day, at the usual time of milking the cows. Where it can be 

 conveniently done, it is better to let them suck three times a day. If 

 one cow does not give sufficient milk to satisfy the calf when he begins 

 to get large, another cow must be at hand. Where a number of calves 

 are fattened at once, and no butter or cheese is made, the number and 

 age of the calves must be regulated by the number of cows and the 

 quantity of milk which they give, so that there shall be milk enough 

 for all. 



The calf-pens should be made like narrow stalls, each for the ac- 

 commodation of only one calf, just wide enough to allow him to lie 

 down, but not to turn about and lick himself, which, if it become a 

 habit, will much retard his progress in fattening. The bottom of the 

 pen should be paved with brick, and washed clean morning and even- 

 ing or it should be boarded ; the boards should be six inches from 

 the ground, and have holes bored in them to let the urine drain 

 through. A piece of chalk or powdered limestone is frequently put 

 in a small trough, which the calf licks, and thus corrects the adcat* 

 which is apt to generate In tin- stomach. The common notion that it 

 makes the flesh whiter is a mint-ike, except so for as good health in the 

 calf produces whiter fleah. At five or six weeks old, if a little sweet 

 hay is tied in a small bundle with a string and hung before them, they 

 will pick a little of it ; and by thus exciting the saliva the digestion 

 will bo assisted. It is only by minute attention that the suckling of 

 calves can be made more profitable than the making of butter or 

 cheese. When it is well managed, and the price of veal is about one- 

 half the price of butter by the pound, there is an advantage in stickling, 

 luit otherwise making butter is more profitable. 



Calves should ! fat by eight or nine weeks old, and it is seldom 

 advisable to keen them above twelve weeks. When they get large 

 they take a much greater quantity of milk, in comparison with \\li.-it 

 they do at seven or eight weeks old, to produce the same increase of 

 flesh. A calf of 16 or 18 stones (8 Ibs. to the stone) the four quarters, 

 and well fatted, will always sell better than one that is larger. 



When milk is scarce, and the calves have not enough to satisfy 



them, it may be necessary to give them some substitute, such as meal 

 mixed with warm milk, or balls of meal and water with a little K' in 

 them, which makes them drowsy. Unseed made into a jelly with 

 boiling water and mixed with warm milk is given by some, or pow- 

 dered oil-cake. All these substitutes can only be recommended when 

 the milk fails they deteriorate the flesh more or less. The best plan, 

 in such a case, is to sell the Urgent calves and reduce the number, so 

 that they may all have their fill of milk. The weight of the four 

 quarters of a calf when killed is about six-tenths of its live weight. 

 Thus if a live calf weighs '200 pounds, his four quarters when he is 

 killed will weigh 20 x 6 = 120 pound*. 



When calves are intended to be reared for grazing or for the dairy, 

 the most perfect individuals should be chosen. They should be well 

 examined, especially the cow calves, to ascertain whether they have a 

 perfect udder and teats, a broad pelvis, and good lungs. If any defi- 

 ciency appears, they ought to be *old or fattened. They should be 

 allowed to suck the mother three or four days, but no more, and then 

 be taught to drink milk out of a pail. This is soon accomplished by 

 gentleness and care. Should there be any difficulty in teaching him 

 to suck with the hand in the usual way, a wisp of twisted straw is put 

 into the pail and one end of it in his mouth. This seldom fails to 

 bring him to drink. When the calf is a week old, skimmed milk 

 which has been boiled and allowed to cool again, so as to be milk-warm, 

 may be given him. After a time this may be diluted with water, and 

 a little meal stirred into it ; or some thin gruel may be made to which 

 skimmed milk is added. Carrots or turnips make an excellent food 

 for calves, especially if they are boiled with cut hay and given warm. 

 In this way calve*, may be reared with very k'ttle milk, tdl they can 

 live on graes alone. A bull-calf not intended to be kept as a bull, may 

 be castrated when three months old. 



The diseases of calves are chiefly muring and cmutipatioti : for 

 the first, if the calves are strong, a recipe recommended by Clater, 

 consisiirting principally of prepared chalk, is likely to be of servi, .- : 

 a large table-spoonful of the powder is given in a pint of new milk 

 every night and morning before the calf is fed, until the purging 

 ceases. For costiveness the following is a good and safe n 

 Castor oil one ounce, prepared kali half a drachm , ginger in | 

 one tea-spoonful. Mix these for a dose, and give it in half a' pint of 

 warm milk. 



C\VPOX. [SMALL-POT..] 



COWRY SHELLS are called by conchologists Cyprvoe. Their 

 beauty has procured them a place among the ornaments of our chimney- 

 pieces, and they have been in demand among civilised and uncivilised 

 nations time out of memory. Like the precious metals, they are not 

 only used for ornament, but they have also the qualities necessary to 

 constitute them a species of currency. In fact, cowries (the Cypraa 

 montta) are used as small coin in many parts of Southern Asia, and 

 especially on the coast of Guinea in Africa. Their great multiplication 

 in these countries, and the extension of the knowledge of coin, has, 

 however, depressed their value so much that they are now used only 

 for domestic interchange, or for the purchase of trifling articles of less 

 value than any European coin. [MONEY.] 



The shells used as currency occur principally in the Philippine 

 Islands, and on the coast of Congo, but particularly among the Maldive 

 Islands, of which they constitute the principal article of export. They 

 are fished for three days after the high tides, by the women, with 

 baskets, in which they take up a quantity of sand containing cowries. 

 When the sand is washed out, the shells are heaped up on the shores, 

 and the fish soon die ; they are then ready for the market. [CTPR^iOJt, 

 in NAT. HIST. Drv.] 



CRAB. A machine used in building operations, for hoisting heavy 

 loads. It consists of a wooden frame, forming a wide base able to be 

 weighted in such a manner as to keep the machine steady ; and of 

 vertical side frames, which are usually of open cast-iron work, and 

 which carry the seats or bearings for the barrel and winches, set in 

 motion by means of double handles on the end of the winch shaft. The 

 winch is, in fact, a pinion gearing into a toothed wheel, with cither a 

 single or double purchase, upon the edge of the barrel wheel ; and 

 around the latter the fall, or rhain, which raises the load, usually by 

 the interposition of a series of blocks, is wound. Single purchase 

 crabs are rarely able to lift more than two tons ; whilst the ordinary 

 double purchase crabs, worked by four men at the wheel, are ' 

 lift as much as from six to eight tons by passing the fall through a 

 series of one, two, and three sheaved blocks. 



CRADLING. A wood, or iron frame intended to receive and 1'inil 

 together the materials used to form a solid bed, or landing ; occasii molly 

 also cradlings are used to support groined arches, but the principle on 

 which they act is in all cases to form, as it were, the skeleton around 

 which the detached materials are made to adhere to one another. The 

 joists of wrought iron, subsequently filled in with cement coi. 

 which have lately been used to form fire-proof floors, serve actually a* 

 cradling; and the iron frames used by the French builders iu the 

 construction of their pottery floors and roofs, serve the some purpose. 

 The mode of ..instructing a cradling must of course depend \i|m 

 the load it will have to carry, the materials of which it is composed, 

 and the position in which it is placed ; and the only general practical 

 remark to be made on the subject is that attention must be paid to 

 obviate any inconvenience from the expansion of the various materials 



