280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



On dispensing with milk, still continue oats in some form, 

 allowing rowen, fine clover hay and some roots for a time ; 

 then, on being turned into an inclosnre of sweet grass, so near 

 the barn that shelter, during night and storms may be easily 

 afforded, dispense with hay and rowen, but continue feeding 

 with small quantities of oats or roots, and a trifle of Indian 

 meal through the summer and autumn. 



During the first winter they should receive careful attention ; 

 being provided with warm, cleanly and well ventilated stables, 

 and fed on clover hay and rowen with oats in some form daily, 

 together with a supply of some kind of roots ; adhering strictly 

 to the principle of regularity in times of feeding. 



Through the succeeding season care should be taken to pro- 

 vide for them pastures yielding plenty of nutritious grasses to 

 assure their rapid growth and free development. 



Similar care is requisite during the second winter, and a 

 continuance of the same kinds of food should be allowed, with 

 such increase in quantity as advancement in size and circum- 

 stances demand. 



Thus, I would feed both male and female from the first day 

 of birth, with a view to secure a full development of milk-pro- 

 ducing qualities. In this manner a large growth, in most cases, 

 will be attained at two years of age. 



It is preferable that heifers, having attained sufficient growth 

 by this mode of feeding and management, should come into the 

 dairy at two years of age. But in this case it is advisable to 

 suffer them to rcihain farrow during the succeeding year for the 

 purpose of affording greater opportunity for development, and 

 the acquirement of a higher state of maturity than would 

 otherwise be attained. But I would avoid raising the calves of 

 two-year-olds, as I would those from old and exhausted cows ; 

 believing the practice in either case, if continued, will produce 

 specimens of stock wanting in the essential of vigor and strength 

 of constitution, and must be attended by fatal deterioration and 

 consequent disappointment in the character of our stock ; 

 differing materially from that raised from parents having 

 attained the most perfect period of life. 



Males do not acquire the highest degree of vigor, strength of 

 constitution, and power to transmit the most perfect qualities of 

 their blood to offspring, until in most instances, they are four or 



