132 DISEASES OP YOUNG CALVES. 



ing the cleansing, will obtain that medicine which nature designed 

 for her. 



It is usual to take away a quart of the first milk, called the heasl- 

 tngs, before the calf is allowed to suck. After this the young animal 

 may be allowed access to the cow, but regulated by the plan^of suck- 

 ling or bringing up on which the grazier may determine. The calf 

 should remain with the mother during a few days at least, or until 

 the milk is proper for the purposes of the dairy. 



The mother's first milk is of an aperient quality, and sufficiently so 

 to cleanse the bowels of the calf from the black sticky substance 

 which they contain when first dropped. If this should not be effected, 

 a little opening medicine will be necessary. 



RECIPE (No. 61). 

 Aperient Drink for Calves.— Take epsoni salts, from one to two ounces, according 

 to the size and a^'e of tiie calf, and dissolve in half a pint of gruel ; then add ginger, 

 a scruple ; essence of peppermint, three drops. 



The Epsom salts are as efllcacious as any kind of oil for purging 

 young cattle, as well as far less expensive than most oils. Custom, 

 however, has sanctioned the almost general use of castor oil in these 

 cases, and there is no objection to it. 



After the first or second day it will be prudent to tie the calf in a 

 corner of the hovel, that it may not be always sucking the mother, 

 for it might overgorge itself with milk, whicii would coagulate in the 

 fourth stomach, and choke it up, and produce disease, and even death. 

 If it is evident that the cow would yield more milk than the calf 

 should have, it is the custom, and very properly, to take away a por- 

 tion of it from her two or three times in the day, before the young 

 one is unfastened. 



The time that the calf, after this, remains with the mother is chiefly 

 regulated by the system which the breeder usually pursues, but refer- 

 ence should always be had to tlie state of the cow's udder. If it is 

 perfectly free from knobs, or kernels, or hardness, the calf may be 

 removed at a comparatively early period ; but if any induration of the 

 teats appears, the young animal should be permitted to suck a while 

 longer. The frequent sucking will prevent the milk from curdling in 

 the udder; and also the friction and shaking of the bag, by the jolting 

 of the calf's head in the act of sucking, will contribute not a little to 

 the dispersion of the tumours. I have already spoken of garget, and 

 shown that a very prevalent cause of it is the weaning of the calf too 

 soon. *. 



Few things are more injurious than the exposure of the young calf 

 to wet and cold. It lays a foundation for rheumatism and hoose, 

 which no medical treatment can afterwards remove. 



For every information with regard to the rearing of calves from the 

 pail, the reader is referred to the newest edition of " The Complete 

 Grazier ;" or the treatise on " Cattle," published by the Useful Know- 

 ledge Society, both of which should find a place in the library of 

 every agriculturist. 



