The Farmer 



chance of the calves showing a profit as stores 

 or two-year-olds. I know a very good farmer 

 who practises this method, and his beasts pay. 



Naturally, calves reared in this fashion will 

 not have quite the bloom that the entirely 

 suckled calf has; still much depends on how 

 the thing is done, and, financially, quantity will 

 more than atone for some slight loss in quality. 



I know well the objection there is to buying 

 in strange calves, and the difficulty in many 

 places of getting them ; and the only possible 

 way that suggests itself to me, by which the 

 one -calf -per -cow system of raising bullocks 

 could be brought to pay, is by making lucerne 

 the chief foodstuff for the cattle of all ages. I 

 believe this to be one of the cheapest forms of 

 fodder for cattle, but I would like to see my 

 impression confirmed by careful experiment at 

 several agricultural colleges. 



As things are, there is little doubt that dairy 

 cows are the class of cattle that pays best. 

 But in England, we are years behind the times 

 both in our treatment of cows and in our sub- 

 sequent dealing with the milk. Even in dairy 

 districts milking cows are kept which have de- 

 plorably low yields of milk. It costs little more 

 to keep a cow yielding 800 to 1,000 gallons of 

 milk a year than one giving 300 or 400 gallons 

 — but the difference in profit is enormous. It is 

 no exaggeration to say that in a few years' time 



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