444 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXVIII. 



on milk, it will probably occupy nearly four months ; but the animal, 

 if turned occasionally out, will begin to nibble the grass when about six 

 weeks old, and may then, within two or three weeks more, be left to graze, 

 until the season becomes wet and cold, when it should be brought, along 

 with other younglings, into a fenccd-ofF part of the farm-yard, where they 

 should be vvell bedded, with sheds to run under, as lying wet, or having 

 very wet land to lie upon, will incur the risk of some very dangerous disorders. 

 Their subsequent treatment must be, in a great measure, dependent on 

 the nature of the land, and the sort of food which it can supply ; for many 

 mountainous stock-farms being wholly in grass, afford nothing more 

 during the winter than a scanty supply of hay, and the yearling calves are 

 again turned upon the rough pasture during the following summer, or 

 until an opportunity offers for disposing of them to other feeders, by whom 

 they are kept during the following winter, partly on turnips in the straw- 

 yard, and afterwards either sold, as in-calf heifers, to the cow-keeper ; as 

 steers, for working stock*; or, to the grazier, for being fattened. It is 

 indeed a very common notion that, provided the young animals acquire 

 bone and size, their condition is immaterial ; and this, though perhaps not 

 the most profitable mode of rearing, is yet the only one which, in such 

 situations, can be adopted : it, of course, generally repaying the breeder 

 and the dealers, or it would not be continued. Where the farm, however, 

 is of such land, and is so managed, as to' supply an abundance of nourish- 

 ment, the breed of tlie animals to be reared should be a prime consideration, 

 never to be lost sight of; and we need hardly say that both sire and dam 

 should be chosen, without regard to any other than imprudent expense, 

 from the very best stock to be obtained in the county : unless, indeed, the 

 main object being the dairj', the calves should be merely intended to be 

 fatted for the butcher f. 



Calves, when properly fattened for veal, form a favourite article of diet 

 for the wealthy, and consequently are largely reared for that purpose by 

 many of those farmers, who are situated within districts not too far from 

 great towns, where they can be readily sold ; for, as they cannot be driven 

 to market, the expenses of carriage to a long distance would otherwise 

 run awav with too much of the profit of feeding them. The business of 

 suckling on a large scale is,' therefore, in a great measure, confined to 

 those who have the convenience of salesmen, who regularly send their spring 

 vans through a certain extent of country, for the purpose of collecting the 

 falted calves, which they dispose of the next day at the neighbouring market : 

 the charge of which — both for carriage and commission on sale — is, if 

 within twenty miles of London, five shillings for every calf, and one shilling 

 more for every guinea which is realized beyond 5/. This, however, is in 

 distant places avoided ; as it is the practice of the country butcher to bargain 

 for the calf while it is being fatted, and take it away at his own cost 

 and convenience. As the milk of one cow will thus necessarily rear from 

 one to three calves, according to its abundance and the period occu- 

 pied in feeding, the sucklers are supplied by calf-dealers, who travel in 



* On Working Stock, see vol. i. chap. vii. and the Training of Steers, p. 215. 



■}• Even in this case, it is however said, that some breeds have whiter fleshed calves 

 than others, and that the butchers judge of the colour of the flesh by looking at the 

 inside of the calf's mouth and the colour of its e3'es : but we should suppose, that this 

 applies rather to the individual calf, than to the general stock arising out of any 

 particular breed. 



