Ch. XXXVIII.] ON VEAL. 445 



carts built for the purpose, throughout all parts of the dairying- districts, 

 where they purchase the young calves, and resell them at various prices from 

 one guinea to thirty shillings a-head, according to their breed, size, and age. 



The age at whic/i the calf should be killed ought not to be sooner than 

 four weeks old ; for if earlier, it can hardly be considered either palatable 

 or wholesome as human food, and we believe that there is a law in France 

 which prohibits their being killed before they have attained tlie age of six 

 weeks. They are, liowever, in many distant })laces slaughtered within a 

 few days after their birth, and are then, by the Irish peasantry, significantly 

 called " staggering bob." If in prime order, he should never exceed ten 

 weeks, by which time he will probably have reached to 16 or 18, or, per- 

 haps, if a fine animal, 20 stones weight; for the veal, will, after that lose 

 much of that delicate whiteness which constitutes its chief value in the 

 market. Indeed calves, if completely fat, which weigh only 14 or 15 

 stones, will often sell for a shilling or two per stone more than one 

 weighing between 20 and 30; nor should it be sooner than seven or eight 

 weeks, or the meat will not then have acquired a suiFicient degree of firnmess. 



On this, however, much difterence of opinion prevails among the feeders ; 

 some holding, that although a fine calf under ten weeks old will command 

 a higher price per stone than one of fourteen weeks, yet the latter will 

 render a larger profit, because he requires less milk, and fattens so much 

 faster after ten weeks old than before, that he will then probably be 25 stone : 

 besides which, there is only the prime cost and the commission of one in- 

 stead of two calves, to be deducted from the value ; and the inferiority of 

 price is more than balanced by these savings, when added to the increased 

 weight of flesh. On this the following estimate, made partly upon a suck- 

 ling dairy of twenty cows, in the county of Essex — the expenses of feeding, 

 labour, interest of money, and depreciation of stock, being calculated at 71. 

 per head — may afford some idea of the different modes : — 

 To expense of the cows . £140 By 50 calves, ave-i 



Cost of 30 calves, at 20s. each 30 ''^giiig 17 stonel /..^i^P ,„ . 



Salesman's charges oil 50 do., at 5*. each, at 5s. 4d.r "" 



per hea'l . . . 12 10 per stone . . J 



Profit . . . . 44 3 4 



To expense of the cows . £140 By 40 calves, ave--v 



Cost of 20 calves, at 20s. each 20 raging 25 stone I p.,, « ,, . 



Salesman's charges on 40 do., at 5s. each, at 4s. 4d. f " 



per head . . . 10 per stone . .J 



Profit .... 46 13 4 



The following are the weights of some calves of the mixed Hereford 

 and Sussex breed, born in the months of May and June ; but they were 

 fed upon skimmed-milk and linseed, boiled to the consistency of a jelly, in 

 the proportion of one pint of the jelly to a gallon of milk ; and the plan did 

 not seem to answer : it may, therefore, be presumed that if they had been 

 fed upon new milk they would have become fatter : — 



Age. Live Weight. Dead Weight. 



10 weeks . , 211 lbs. 133 lbs. 

 lOdo. and3 days 209 , , 136 ,, 



11 do. and 3 do. 235 ,, 1J4 ,, 



12 do. and 5 do. 210 ,, 160 ,, 



or, the dead weight about two-thirds of that when alive*. 



* Sussex Report, p. 262. Several instances are mentioned in Aiton's Account of 

 Fatting Calves in Strathaven, of their having been brought to very great weights ; but, 

 unfortunately, he does not mention the period employed in fatting. — See Quart. Journ. of 

 Agric., vol. V. p. 252. 



