330 The Feeding of Animals 



The explanation of this is the high percentage of oil 

 in this meal, its low content of starch, and its high 

 rate of digestibility. Besides, it appears to promote a 

 healthy condition of the organs of digestion. Oil meal 

 may be used in its stead, but it is less desirable at 

 first. 



The calf should be allowed whole milk for a few 

 days, not necessarily more than a week, when it may 

 be gradually changed over to skimmed milk and flax- 

 seed meal. An admirable mixture is prepared by 

 cooking the flaxseed meal in water in the proportion 

 of one to six by volume, and adding a small amount of 

 this (the equivalent of three or four tablespoonfiils 

 of the dry meal at first) to eighteen or twenty pounds 

 of warm skimmed milk, which may serve as a day's 

 ration. The quantity of meal should be gradually in- 

 creased up to one pound a day inside of a few weeks. 

 In six or eight weeks the calf should be allowed ac- 

 cess to dry oatmeal, or oatmeal and wheat middlings, or 

 the oatmeal and middlings may be boiled with the 

 flaxseed meal and mixed with the milk. After ninety 

 days the flaxseed meal may be dropped for the sake of 

 economy. The calf will soon appreciate a wisp of 

 early cut hay, some coarse food "becoming a necessity 

 before many months pass. This method of feeding 

 has repeatedly produced rapid growth and fine ani- 

 mals. For heifers it is probably to be preferred to 

 whole milk feeding, as it is fully as conducive to the 

 vigorous development of the muscular system and is 

 less likely, perhaps, to promote a tendency to lay on 

 body fat. 





