774 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



ration, but with the addition of a little food that is rich in flesh 

 formers, and a warm stable, you can keep them growing all 

 winter. 



As the flow of milk is greatest during the season of early 

 pasture, it would be less trouble, and perhaps better, to get 

 two extra calves of the same age as the two your own cows 

 had dropped, and raise them all together, for with good cows 

 this could be done. Ordinarily, however, where milk is needed 

 in the family, one calf for each cow is all that can be profitably 

 kept, and I would not under any circumstances keep more than 

 I could feed well, and should not expect to keep a calf thrifty 

 with less than six quarts of milk a day, and then only by the 

 judicious use of linseed meal. 



To succeed in growing as good a calf on skimmed milk as 

 on new requires care and skill, and the work can not be trusted 

 to children or left to be done by any one who happens to think 

 of it, but one person should have the care of them, and the 

 feeding should be regular as to time and amount. I prefer 

 feeding twice a day rather than three times, as the calf will 

 begin to graze sooner if allowed to become hungry. 



Fall Calves. For many years after I began farming I 

 sold all fall calves to the butchers, thinking that a calf born at 

 that season could not be profitably raised. After an experience 

 extending over several years, in which I have raised both spring 

 and fall calves, I prefer the latter, and I find that many of the 

 best stock men of my vicinity agree with me. We have more 

 leisure in winter than in summer to attend to a calf, there are 

 no flies to trouble, and the milk will keep sweet, the calf soon 

 learns to eat bran, shelled corn, and hay or corn fodder, and 

 grows thriftily all winter, and goes on pasture at six or seven 

 months' old instead of one year. Your spring calf is weaned 

 on failing pastures, and must have extra care for a full year, 

 but the fall calf having a long season on grass comes to its 

 second winter much better developed, and can be kept thrifty 

 with less care. In a test which I have made with grade Short- 

 horn steers, I found a difference of one hundred and fifty 

 pounds at a year old in favor of the fall calf. These figures 



