168 My Little Farm 



had been spent at work as far from that as it 

 could be. 



Here is a kind of problem which occurs every- 

 where. " It is time to wean that calf, Tommy." 

 " Yis, sir," and Tommy puts him into the top 

 field among the older calves. The cow starts 

 calling him, and he replies. The breadth of a 

 whole field is between, with two good fences, and 

 yet that calf will find his way to that cow. I have 

 known a calf go out into another farm, from that 

 into a third, then across a river, and then back into 

 another part of my own pasture, where he found 

 the cow, among a family celebration of the reunion. 

 That was in daylight, but see what a calf of three 

 weeks can do at night. Last year, one came nearly 

 a mile through hedge and dike, fences and crops, 

 bogs and swamps and marshes. I know the way. 

 It was more like a feat for a dog, but he found his 

 mother in the dark. The best plan that I have 

 found to stop mothering is as follows : Having 

 taken him from mama and put him among the 

 other calves, I watch him for a time. His efforts 

 to get out increase every hour. When he begins 

 to be desperate, I open the gate and let him come, 

 but into the house, where good food awaits him. 

 When he is tired of that, back again into the field, 

 and out of that, only to come indoors. Presently, 

 he finds that he can leave the field only for the 

 house, which he likes less, and the work begins to 

 be easy when you find him gladder to go out than 

 to come in. Meantime, his palate has been 

 adapting itself to the new menu, and the craving 



