Preventive Pathology 129 



antidote to this pest, but no young animal of mine 

 is ever at any age without a large proportion of its 

 food dry. Excess of liquids is ruin to calves. 



A permanent stream runs by the end of the 

 paddock, outside the fence ; and inside it, I have 

 sunk a well, deeper than the bed of the stream and 

 guarded against dirt. A gullet runs across under 

 the fence, so that as the animals drink, the water 

 runs in from the stream to them. In any weather, 

 they know exactly where to go when thirsty, and 

 they have given up their attacks on the fence to 

 get at the clean water outside it. The whole 

 thing was done by one man in half a day, at a cost 

 of is. 6d., and yet it had remained undone through 

 all the generations before I came. Irish farming 

 is so full of such big effects producible by small 

 means that one cannot but marvel at the strong 

 men who look on in their idleness during three or 

 four months every year. I know family homes 

 where the dung pit is kept from generation to 

 generation on the sunny side of the house, within 

 a few feet of the door, while a suitable place at a 

 proper distance on the other side could be prepared 

 at the cost of a single day's work by the family. 



For purposes of health, the two most critical 

 stages in the early life of a calf are, first, during the 

 three days after birth, when the alimentary 

 process is put in motion in its new condition, 

 subject to the necessity for voiding waste products ; 

 and second, the week after cudding, when, for the 

 first time, the constitution adapts itself to solid 

 food, At the first of these stages, I have never 



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