442 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch, XXXVIII. 



the calf, is to place it loose in a crib, and to suckle it by hand with the 

 mother's new milk, of which it will consume, for some time, not more than 

 about four quarts per day : the quantity, however, must then be gradually 

 increased, as it will, in the course of a few weeks, require as much as three 

 gallons. If the weather be fine, it should be, within a fortnight or three weeks, 

 turned out daily in the orchard, or some well-sheltered enclosure of sweet 

 herbage, and as it will, in the course often or tvvelve weeks, have acquired 

 some relish for the pasture, it may be regularly weaned by gradually diminish- 

 ing the quantity of milk, and then substituting the skimmed for the new. 

 Calves may, however, be reared with skimmed-milk and meal, without any 

 portion of new-milk, except the first few days' beestings, and many persons 

 give them nothing but water-gruel and hay-tea, within a fortnight after they 

 have been removed from the cow *. Hay-tea and linseed jelly are also very 

 nutritious, and calves may be weaned on them without any other foodf. 

 We have heard of a farmer who, for many years, successfully reared a great 

 number by taking them from the cow at about seven days old, then giving 

 them skimmed-milk for ten or twelve days more, with a few turnips cut 

 into small pieces, which they soon learn to nibble and eat, after which they 

 •were turned into the turnip field, without any farther care or trouble than 

 carrying them a small bundle of fresh barley or oat straw every night and 

 morning, laying it under the hedge which was most sheltered from the wind. 

 He often turned them out in the month of January, yet he never lost any 

 of them, and they all appeared in health and good condition J. 



Various schemes have indeed been tried, with some success, for the 

 weaning of calves without any, or at least with only a small portion of milk, 

 and such plans are well deserving of trial, in all those places where that 

 article is of general consumption. By many persons they are taken within 

 three days from the cow, and are fed with lukewarm skim.med-milk and 

 water, having a little bran or oatmeal in it, and by others with new whey along 

 with meal. If weaned on skimmed-milk, the calves ought however to fall in 

 December, or within a month of that time, and then be kept warm by hous- 

 ing. Heifers with their first calves are,ho\vever, exceptions ; as such do not 

 become good milkers if their calves do not suck the whole season : but with 

 the second calf they are treated like the rest§. Treacle and linseed oil- 

 cake — in the portion of half an ounce of treacle and one ounce of powdered 

 oil-cake, mixed with a pint of skimmed-milk, properly incorporated, and 

 given along with lukewarm whey, or hay-tea, have also been advantage- 

 ously adopted ; in the north of England they are, for the first four or five 

 weeks, fed upon equal quantities of new and skimmed-milk, after which they 

 are gradually brought to drink gruel, made of bean or oatmeal, mixed with 

 one half of buttermilk. Besides this, in some of the southern counties, 

 pot liquor is often given with good etlect instead of gruel ; and the follow- 

 ing plan is successfully practised in North Anvn-ica, where it has received 

 a prize from the Agricultural Society of Massachusetts : — 



The calves, when three days old, are taken from the cows, and fed with 

 barley and oats ground together, which is made into gruel — one quart of 



* Suffolk Report, 3rcl edit. p. 208. 



f Bath Papers, vol. v. p. 465. — Linseed jelly is made by putting one quart of seed to 

 six quarts of water, and allowing it boil during ten minutes. Hay-tea is made by infusing 

 such a portion of fine sweet hay as will fill an earthen vessel on being lightly jiressed 

 with the hand, and boiling water being poured upon it : ihe vessel is then closed, and in a 

 couple of hours a strong liquor produced, which wdl keep good ibr a couple of days : it 

 should be used lukewarm, and, if given without linseed, should be mixed during the 

 first few days with three parts milk, to be afterwards reduced to one-fourth. 



J Bath Papers, vol. ii. p. 154. § Sussex Report, p. 263. 



