No. 5. 



Sucking Calves. — Retrospect. 



149 



cessaries, to sell or exchange with strangers 

 for their delicacies and luxuries, whereby all 

 our imaginary or artificial wants would also 

 be gratified."* 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Sacking Calves. 



Sir, — A writer in the Maine Farmer pro- 

 poses, in the present time of low prices for 

 farm produce, to allow tlie calves to suck the 

 dairy-cows for five or six months, instead of 

 making butter of the milk. He says, "I 

 propose to let the calves continue with their 

 dams for five or six months, and have no 

 doubt they would better indemnify the farmer 

 than do the butter and cheese which he 

 makes, by the additional labour of his wife ; 

 and let this course be pursued but for a few 

 years, and butter and cheese would be worth 

 something; besides, we should thus become 

 possessed of noble stock. As it has not been 

 tried to any extent thus to allow the calves 

 to run with their dams for so long a time — 

 but as I am certain it would be the most pro- 

 fitable mode of disposing of our milk — let us, 

 brother farmers, unite and try it next sum- 

 mer, except on such cows as we need as a 

 dairy for our families, the calves from which 

 may be slaughtered. Some have, but with- 

 out any reason or evidence, supposed that 

 allowing the calves to be with their dams 

 through the summer, would be to the injury 

 of the cows ; but, so far from this being the 

 case, the cow would be benefited, she would 

 be much more contented, and her bag would 

 never become too much distended ; and un- 

 less she become by these means too fat, she 

 cannot be injured; no one, however, will 

 pretend to say that her flesh will injure her 

 materially." 



Now, I must be permitted to dissent from 

 this doctrine, and that very essentially. I 

 have had repealed opportunity of witnessing 

 the results of permitting the calves to remain 

 with their dams through the summer, and 

 have found it to be uniformly injurious to the 

 cows as milkers. I grant "they are more 

 contented, and the bag is never distended," 

 but this last consideration is of ruinous con- 

 sequence, for I hold it absolutely necessary 

 that the bag of the cow should be periodically 

 distended, and without it, it can never attain 

 to that capacity, which is always considered 

 a sine qua non with all deep milkers — and 

 here then, we are at issue — to be sure he 

 admits that the plan which he proposes has 

 not, to his knowledge, been tried to any ex- 



* As an axiom in cultivation, that crop which gives 

 the most food for man, and provender for beast, ousht 

 to have the preference. Silk and wine yield neither 

 the one nor llie other, and what is worse, perhaps, 710 

 manure, with which to replenish the land, when ex- 

 hausted by the growth of these luxurious crops. 



tent, and of course he cannot therefore be 

 supposed to know much about the result, but, 

 for this reason, he ought not to censure those 

 who suppose that the cows would be injured 

 by such a course as that which he advocates ; 

 but those who have seen it tried, have been 

 fully convinced that the cow is injured, seri- 

 ously and permanently as a milker ever after; 

 for having suckled her calf through one sum- 

 mer, she will the next year expect the same 

 treatment, and will not, therefore, give her 

 milk kindly to the pail, even if she had as 

 much to give. 



My experience extends to many hundred 

 cases, for upon the hills of Scotland it is the 

 universal practice to permit the calves to re- 

 main with their dams during the summer, but 

 such are never known or expected to make 

 superior cows for the dairy, and for this reason. 



Depend upon it, to make a deep milker the 

 bag must be periodically distended, and those 

 who suppose that to allow the calves to re- 

 main with their dams through the summer 

 would be to the injury of the cows, have not 

 come to that conclusion without " reason or 

 evidence." Besides, does not the writer in a 

 measure admit the possibility of the case, 

 when he thinks it possible that the cows, un- 

 der such treatment, might grow too faf? — as 

 they assuredly will — it is not often that cows, 

 when kept to the pail, are troubled with this 

 inconvenience. Lothian. 



Retrospect. 



The quality of the wheat, the present year, 

 is admitted, on all hands, to be excellent, the 

 berry fine, plump, and bright, and such as 

 will make the best of flour. As to the quan- 

 tity, however, there is evidently some differ- 

 ence of opinion, some supposing the crop to 

 be an enormous one, while others rate it as 

 not middling: the truth probably lies between 

 these estimates, and the crop might be con- 

 sidered a good one. In some districts the fly 

 did damage ; in others, the worm has shown 

 itself, but to a comparatively limited extent, 

 while the most serious drawback is to be 

 found in the freezing nights and thawing 

 days,* that succeeded the disappearance of 

 the snow, and which, on heavy clays, and 

 on those of shallow tilth, caused the roots of 

 the wheat-plant to be lifted from the ground, 

 and, in consequence, many perished. The 

 moderate weather, and light but frequent 

 rains of the spring months, had a tendency to 

 counteract the evil, and many pieces of wheat 

 have so far recovered as to promise a me- 

 dium crop, that would have failed entirely, 

 had the freezing-out been followed with dry- 

 ing winds and a clear sky. — Cultivator. 



* The real cause of all the evils that have been ex- 

 perienced. — Ed. Cabinet. 



