276 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



For the Xeiv England Farmer. 



USEFUL RECEIPTS. 



Mr. Brown : — I have made up the following 

 little items from my memorandums, thinking 

 they may possibly be of use to somebody, and 

 send them to you for publication, if you think 

 best. 



Rearing Calves. — I have sometimes raised 

 calves by allowing them to suckle cows for the 

 first three or four months after birth, sometimes 

 by giving them milk to drink for about the same 

 period, and, in one or two instances, for want of 

 milk, have brought them up on gruel. Latterly 

 E have practised the following mode, and think it, 

 on the whole, the best of any I have tried : 



Take the calf from its dam when a few days 

 or a week old, according to the condition of the 

 cow's bag, and learn it to drink new milk, warm 

 from the cow, feeding it thus, twice a day till 

 four or six weeks old. Then begin quite gradu- 

 ally to lessen the quantity of new milk, adding, 

 in place of that taken away, an equal measure 

 of skiimued milk — the milk, previous to skim- 

 ming, having stood about twelve hours, and, be- 

 for.:! it is given to the calf, having been warmed 

 to the temperature of the new milk. So gradu- 

 ate the reduction of the new and the addition of 

 the skimmed milk, that the latter shall consti- 

 tute the entire mess for the calf when it arrives 

 at the age of eight or nine weeks. Wlien the 

 calf is five or six weeks old, give it a few dry 

 oats, say a moderate handful daily, and increase 

 a little at a time, till at and after ten weeks of 

 age the calf shall receive about a pint per day ; 

 also, at the age of five weeks, begin to feed a 

 little nice fine hay. When the calf is ten weeks 

 old, the milk it receives may be that which has 

 stood longer than twelve hours before being 

 skimmed ; also at and after this age, the quantity 

 of milk may be gradually lessened, and water 

 substituted for the milk taken away, so that 

 when the calf is twelve or fourteen weeks old, 

 the milk sliall lie wholly withdrawn, and the calf 

 shall receive oats, hay and water, or shall be 

 turned off to good pasturage. 



Thus managed, the calf will never know when 

 it was weaned from milk — will have no season of 

 repining and falling away in flesh, or remaining 

 stationary in growth — will have no troublesome 

 habit, after the time for weaning, of sucking 

 cows that may chance to be in the pasture or 

 yard with it, and will be quite as large, plump 

 and symmetrical when a yearling, as though, it 

 had been reared by the more expensive mode of 

 suckling a cow. During the winter preceding 

 the period when the calf becomes a yearling, it 

 should be fed on the best of fine hay, with one 

 quart of dry oats, or six to eight quarts of 

 mashed roots, daily. It is not a good practice to 



feed meal to young calves, either before or after 

 weaning, the meal being too heating, injuring 

 digestion and bringing on purging, and worse 

 still, if fed freely, causing the calf to grow out 

 of shape, picked and scrawny. It is also difficult 

 to rear a nice well-shaped calf on gruel, because 

 of the meal of which the gruel is in part made, 

 and because the quality for forming well-developed 

 bone and a well-shaped body, which milk emi- 

 nently possesses, is too much lacking in the gruel. 



Cure for Purging. — Take of pulverized com- 

 mon white chalk, and of ginger, each a table- 

 spoonful, put the same into the calf's milk, and 

 stir well while the calf is drinking it — the ten- 

 dency of the chalk being to settle on the bottom 

 of the pail or trough. I have used this remedy 

 for a dozen years or more, and have recommended 

 it to many persons during the time. However, 

 if a calf is carefully watched from da,y ^ day, 

 and fed on proper food, suitably warmed, there 

 will seldom be any occasion to treat him for any 

 malady. 



To Cure the Garget. — A writer in the 0/iio 

 Farmer says that a cow affected by garget may 

 be cured by rubl)ing the bag thorouglily, in all 

 parts, with raw linseed oil ; that one application 

 is usually sufficient, if done on the first appear- 

 ance of the disorder, and that two or three rub- 

 bings will, in any case, effect a cure. He also 

 states that he has seen cows from whose bags, by 

 reason of garget, no milk could be drawn, so far 

 cured in forty-eight hours that they would give 

 nearly as mucli milk as previous to the attack, 

 and show no further symptoms of the disease. 



To REMOVE Vermin from Cattle. — Dissolve 

 camphor gum in new rum, making the liquid 

 pretty strong of camphor, and apply it on various 

 parts of the body of the animal. It is a harmless 

 application, so far as the animal is concerned, 

 leaving the coat free and clear, but destroys^ the 

 lice. In about two or three weeks after the first 

 application, rub on the liquid again, in order to 

 kill the young vermin that may have hatched out 

 after the first rubbing. I know of no safe appli- 

 cation which will prevent tlie eggs or nits from 

 hatching. 



To PREVENT Field ^Micefrom Girdling Trees. — 

 In passing over the farm of Mr. Solyman Cune, 

 of this town, a few days ago, I saw the following 

 plan in use to secure his fruit trees from the 

 depredations of field mice, they having formerly 

 caused liim much vexation and loss by eating off 

 the bark of his trees. Small blocks of slitwork- 

 stuff, sawed say four to six inches long, are pro- 

 vided, and bored partly through, lengthwise, with 

 a 1\ inch auger ; ratsbane and Indian meal 

 are mixed together, in the proportion of one- 

 fourth of a pound of ratsbane to two quarts of 

 meal ; into the hole in each block is put a tea- 



