KEEPING ONE COW. 13 



I have weaned several calves since then, but have never had any 

 trouble. Leave them with the cow three or four days, then take 

 a little milk and hold the calf's nose in the pail; it must open its 

 mouth or smother, and when once it tastes the milk will soon learn 

 to drink.* When it is a week old, commence feeding with oil- 

 cake, skim-milk and molasses. Into an old two-pound peach can, 

 I put one tablespoon ful of oil-cake and one of molasses, fill up tho 

 can with boiling water, and set it on the stove until thoroughly 

 cooked. That quantity will be its allowance for one day, mixeA 

 with skim-milk. The next week give it that quantity at each meal, 

 and the next week twice that. The calf will then be four weeks 

 old, and the butcher ought to give you a price for it that will pay 

 for all trouble and the family milk bill while the cow was dry. It 

 does not pay to raise calves where you only keep one cow. (Mr. 

 Cochrane, the owner of the celebrated cow " Duchess of Airdrie," 

 told me the other morning that last year he sold a calf of hers to 

 an English gentleman for four thousand guineas (twenty thousand 

 dollars). I think it would pay to have a wet nurse if one had a 

 calf like that). A tablespoonful of lime-water put in the milk now 

 and then will prevent the calf from " scouring," a complaint very 

 common among calves brought up by hand. I believe that winter 

 rye makes a valuable soiling plant, but I have never tried it. 



A FEW WOKDS AS TO GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



I think it cruel to keep cows tied up all summer. They do not 

 require much exercise, but fresh air they must have, and it is a 

 great comfort to them to lick themselves, although they ought to 

 be well curried every day. It is better to milk after feeding, as 

 they stand more quietly. Don't allow your milk-maid to wash 

 the cow's teats in the milk pail, a filthy habit much in vogue. 

 Insist on her taking a wet cloth and wiping the cow's bag thor- 

 oughly before she commences to milk. A cow ought to be milked 

 in ten minutes, although the first time I undertook to milk alone, 

 I tugged away for an hour. I knew how much milk I ought to 

 have, and I was bound to get it. An old cow will eat more than 

 a young one, but will give richer milk. If you ran get a cow 

 with her second calf, you can keep her profitably for five years, 

 when she should be sold to the butcher. There is nothing that 



* It is better, as a rule, not to allow the calf to suck at all. Aptness in learn- 

 ing to drink is influenced by heredity. Calves from ancestors that have not 

 been allowed to suck, learn to drink more readily than those which have been 

 allowed to run with the dam. 



