The Nursery 115 



and the calf's behaviour at every meal ought to be 

 remembered against the next. Of twelve calves 

 born on the same day, not two may be fit for 

 solids on the same date, not two will require 

 exactly the same quantity at any date, and not two 

 will exactly coincide in their fitness to begin 

 diminishing the milk supply. I have found, how- 

 ever, that the calf chewing the cud at the earliest 

 age is generally the earliest at the subsequent 

 stages, and the best in the end ; not necessarily the 

 biggest or the heaviest, but generally the most 

 successful in his return for the expenditure on 

 him, which is the final test of all animal farming. 

 There is a third period. Some time in the 

 sixth week the average calf can maintain his 

 progress on less milk and more solids, but the 

 change may be made as successfully with one in 

 the fifth week as with another in the seventh, 

 due to the hereditary factor. In either case, and 

 in every case, the change must start gradually. I 

 diminish the milk per calf twice a week, by a pint 

 each time, for the next four weeks, so that in the 

 tenth week he has only two quarts a day, which 

 continues for the next three weeks without farther 

 fall. During the fourteenth week the two quarts 

 are gradually diminished to nothing, and we get 

 out of the nursery ; but by this time we have a 

 younger family making their way up from the 

 other end through the various stages, on the milk 

 set free in increasing quantities from those on the 

 way to weaning. This second lot usually take 

 more time and attention, because started from 



