The Nursery 113 



many people muzzle them with an old stocking 

 or a perforated saucepan, which deprives them of 

 what they need as well as what would hurt them. 

 Bring the young constitution in a normal state to 

 the cudding stage, which can be done as I direct, 

 and there is no need whatever for such laborious 

 tinkering with muzzles, not to mention the 

 advantage of having a healthy calf instead of one 

 more or less injured either by disease or by the 

 cure. The quantities of milk above mentioned 

 are averages, and some calves ought to get more 

 than others at the same age. We have now 

 covered the first fifteen to twenty days in the 

 calf's life up to cudding. 



Take a like period, or a little longer, after 

 cudding. By far the greatest consumption of 

 milk ought to be now, when the capacity to 

 assimilate solids is rapidly advancing, but not yet 

 sufficiently advanced to diminish the milk, which 

 makes the best possible foundation for its substi- 

 tutes in the future. Stinting now might mean a 

 waste of milk, requiring an otherwise unnecessary 

 consumption of it later on, and producing a worse 

 calf in the end. During this critical period, I give 

 six quarts, but never more, and any additional 

 food is in supplemental solids ; but the need to 

 differentiate is greater than ever, because not two 

 of a dozen calves at the same age may have the 

 same stomach for solids, and while some reject 

 what they do not require of them, others will 

 swallow an excess. Irregularity in the milk is less 

 dangerous. As in dealing with the milk, the total 



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