292 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



to which the milk is supplemented by other food. When 

 milk can be spared, it may be fed up to the limit of the 

 capacity of the calf to take it without deranging the di- 

 gestion, one of the first indications of which is a lax con- 

 dition of the bowels. Usually 8 to 10 pounds per 

 day will prove ample during the first week of feeding 

 skim milk, that is to say, about the third week of the life 

 of the calf. This quantity may be increased at the rate 

 of, say l /z pound per week up to the age of say 15 or 16 

 weeks, or as long as the milk period continues. When 

 desired, however, the skim milk may be so supplemented 

 by other foods, that amounts considerably less than those 

 named may be fed without serious detriment to the 

 calves. 



The duration of the milk feeding period may be in- 

 fluenced by such conditions as the milk supply, the needs 

 of the animals, and the extent to which cheaper foods are 

 substituted. Usually calves may be more cheaply reared 

 on small or moderate amounts of milk than on larger 

 amounts of the same, but such feeding calls for an intelli- 

 gent selection and use of supplemental foods. When 

 skim milk is abundant, it may be fed to calves for many 

 months. Some feeders have fed it to yearlings when seek- 

 ing much growth while preparing them for exhibition. 



The nature of the supplementary foods to be given 

 with the skim milk wilj vary somewhat with the purpose 

 for which the calves are reared. But, whatever that end 

 may be, it will be found advantageous to add ground 

 flax seed, oil meal or flax seed gruel to the milk, as soon 

 as the change from whole milk to skim milk begins. In 

 this way, fat may be supplied from a cheap source in lieu 

 of that removed from the skim milk that is fe.d. The 

 amount of the meal required at the first may not ex- 

 ceed a heaped teaspoonful, but this should be increased 

 as the calves are able to take it, but not to the extent of 

 inducing too lax a condition of the bowels. The gruel is 



