162 HOW THEY DO IN SCOTLAND. 



milk, with seldom any admixture ; and they are not per- 

 mitted to suckle their dams, but are taught to drink 

 milk by the hand from a dish. They are generally fed 

 on milk only for the first four, five, or six weeks, and are 

 then allowed from two to two and a half quarts of new 

 milk each meal, twice in the twenty-four hours. Some 

 never give them any other food when young except 

 milk, lessening the quantity when the calf begins to 

 eat grass or other food, which it generally does 

 when about five weeks old, if 'grass can be had; and 

 withdrawing it entirely about the seventh or eighth 

 week of the calf's age. But, if the calf is reared 

 in winter, or early in spring, before the grass rises, it 

 must be supplied with at least some milk till it is eight 

 or nine weeks old; as a calf will not so soon learn to 

 eat hay or straw, nor fare so well on them alone as it 

 will do on pasture. Some feed their calves reared for 

 stock partly with meal mixed in the milk after the 

 third or fourth week. Others introduce gradually some 

 new whey among the milk, first mixed with meal ; 

 and, when the calf gets older, they withdraw the milk, 

 and feed it on whey and porridge. Hay-tea, juices of 

 peas and beans, or pea or bean straw, linseed beaten 

 into powder, treacle, <fcc, have all been sometimes used 

 to advantage in feeding calves ; but milk, when it can 

 be spared, is by far their most natural food. 



" In Galloway, and other pastoral districts, where the 

 calves are allowed to suckle, the people are so much 

 wedded to their own customs as to argue that suckling is 

 much more nutritive to the calves than any other mode 

 of feeding. That suckling induces a greater secretion 

 of saliva, which, by promoting digestion, accelerates the 

 growth and fattening of the young animal, cannot be 

 doubted ; but the secretion of that fluid may likewise 

 be promoted by placing an artificial teat in the mouth 



