^o FARM MANAGEMENT 



for a drink and some exercise, as it is bad for 

 both cow and calf to keep the cow confined 

 indoors all day. The food at this time should 

 be chiefly hay, straw and turnips, but if roots 

 and hay are not plentiful, give 2 to 3 lbs. of 

 linseed cake per day. The average cow will 

 consume about 9 lbs. of hay and about 25 lbs. 

 of roots per day. It is one of the axioms of 

 farming that animals with young should not 

 be fed richly before calving ; in the case of 

 cows it is apt to result in milk fever. As 

 cows near their time, and when the weather 

 will be improving, it is as well to turn them on 

 to rather bare pasture. A week before calving, 

 however, bring them inside and feed chiefly on 

 hay, supplemented with a little bran and treacle. 

 A month or two before calving, the cows 

 become dry ; should they not do so, however, 

 as happens not infrequently, then they should 

 be dried off by milking less and less each 

 day. 



The method of letting a cow calve in a loose 

 box, rather than tied up in a stall, is to be 

 preferred, as then the calf is attended to natur- 

 ally. The cow should be put in the box two or 

 three days before she is due to calve, and the 



