44 BETTER DAIRY FARMING 



cents a pound it is the best feed for calves where whole or skim 

 milk cannot be fed. If the dairyman can get it in limited amounts 

 only he can use it to advantage in one of the calf meal formulas we 

 have listed. If it could be made 20 per cent of the mixture, the 

 blood meal and minerals, except the salt, could be omitted. 

 Thus the dried milk could replace those materials hard to get. 



77. Lead poisoning. — A good many calves are lost from time 

 to time through lead poisoning. Veterinarians and chemists have 

 traced many deaths to it, where the owner would have been willing 

 to swear that the calf had no chance to eat anything containing 

 lead. Few dairymen appreciate the variety of ways in which a 

 calf may be poisoned from lead. 



78. Most paint contains lead. — This fact is generally under- 

 stood. Young calves habitually lick everything. A freshly 

 painted wall, a discarded paint container, carelessly left around 

 the barn or thrown on a rubbish heap, in the yard or pasture, 

 furnish the calf his opportunity. Many do not appreciate that 

 calves will eat paint. We know from personal experience that they 

 will drink paint right down if given a chance. When calves get 

 access to a paint bucket, or freshly painted surface they usually 

 swallow enough to produce acute symptoms rapidly followed by 

 death. Consequently the cause is generally located. 



79. Slow poisoning from lead. — There is another type of 

 lead poisoning, however, which is harder to locate. It is based on 

 the fact that lead is a cumulative poison. This means that, even 

 though not enough may be taken at any one time to cause char- 

 acteristic symptoms of poisoning, lead gradually accumulates in 

 the system until there is enough to kill the calf. This is the way in 

 which a lot of unsuspected lead poisoning occurs. Old, dry paint 

 is just as dangerous as fresh, and wherever there is a painted 

 board that the calf can get at, a gradual poisoning may occur. 

 Many like to have fancy quarters for their animals and thus 

 everything is painted. Much lead poisoning occurs under these 

 conditions. Even those who insist that no paint is used around 

 the calf's quarters frequently find an old painted board handy for 

 repairing a manger or partition and use it without realizing that the 



