Bkc. 6.] 



FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. 



61 



body, well rounded behind the shoulders ; straight back ; wide loius ; full 

 quarters ; tail thiu and tapering ; skin soft, and not too thiu. 



It is too often the case that animals are selected for rearing from being of 

 pretty color — that takes the fancy of some member of the fixmily — or the 

 calf of some pet cow of the dairy-maid, without attention being paid to its 

 promise of excellences. Kot unfreqneutly valuable calves are fattened for 

 veal, simply because their color is unploasing to the eye. 



This is about the most important branch of the stock-raiser's business. 

 Too many persons pursue the careless mode of the person who wrote the 

 foflowing item : 



" In the spring of 1S5S my two cows had bull calves, which I determined 

 to raise for sale, and so gave them a good chance to grow, adding an extra 

 in the shape x>f a handful of barley meal, with their feeds of milk. They 

 grew linely, or rather Bobby did, for Billy, taking a sudden dislike to sour 

 milk, had rather slim rations for the last six weeks before weaning. I told 

 him he might starve if ho liked, and took no special pains to humor his 

 fancies. In September I had an offer of $G for Bobby, and concluded to 

 let him go, but the buyer was behind time about two weeks, and thought 

 the additional keeping woi'th nothing, so I did not turn him off. So, of 

 course, Bobby was kept, and grew up to propagate the race of Bob calves."' 



78. Calves — Give tlioni Shelter. — It is almost impossible to winter calves 

 without shelter; if they survive tlie winter, they arc mere skeletons, and 

 Iiave to be lifted up before spring, and never make anything but poor, raw- 

 boned, unprofitable stock. Sheep are many times allowed to pick up what 

 they can get for half the winter; but the dead lambs, and probably dead 

 sheep, that lie scattered over the fields, tell the profit of such a course. 

 "When protected, all food not required to maintain the natural waste of the 

 system goes toward increasing the growth of the animal. To obtain perfect 

 form, animals should be kept continually growing until they arrive at 

 maturity. They are often turned out in the spring so poor that it requires 

 half the summer to make them as good as they were the fall before — a loss 

 of three quarters of the year in the growth of the animal. A grazier lately 

 said to us, in speaking of such a lot of cattle that he bought, "It took the 

 whole summer to soak their hides loose, so that they could begin to grow. 

 They seemed as hard and dry as a pair of old boots, and in some spots *as 

 destitute of hair." 



7!). Traiiiiog Steers. — At the Maine State Fair, a boy of fifteen years, 

 from the town of Woodstock, had a pair of three-year-old steers, which 

 obeyed him as an obedient boy will his j)arents. By a motion of his liand 

 they would go forward, halt, and return, go to the right or left, kneel down, 

 and perform other things, much to tlie surprise of some older farmei-s, who 

 are in the habit of putting the brad through the hide. At a New York 

 State Fair there was a perfect Karey of an ox-tamer, who j)racticc3 breaking 

 steers for farmers, and as lie never treats them inhumanly, he soon has them 

 under perfect control, and as bidablc as well-trained children. 



