674 Diseases of the Genital Organs 



No harm will ordinarily come to the cow if left without 

 milking for twenty-four hours after calving, when, under 

 the plan advised, the calf will get colostrum in its first feed. 

 Notwithstanding the assertions of numerous teachers re- 

 garding feeding, the necessity for feeding colostrum to a 

 calf is a myth. Experimentally I have fed many calves upon 

 boiled milk from birth, and colostrum cannot be boiled with- 

 out coagulating. While a calf can be well grown experi- 

 mentally upon boiled milk from the outset, it requires very 

 close watching and skillful handling in most instances. I 

 prefer that for the first eight or ten days the calf should be 

 fed the very small ration mentioned of raw milk from its 

 dam. During this period there is confessedly the danger 

 from infection borne in her milk, but under usual condi- 

 tions this is more than counterbalanced by its content of 

 protective substances of a highly essential character. The 

 plan has very important limitations. If the dam is tuber- 

 cular, her raw milk should not be fed to her calf. Either 

 the milk of a tubercle-free cow should be substituted or the 

 milk of the dam boiled, fed very sparingly, and the loss of the 

 antibodies in her milk destroyed by boiling, counterbalanced 

 by the liberal use of calf scours serum. Similar limitations 

 apply to diseases of the udder. Perhaps the greatest ob- 

 stacle to overcome in guarding the health of young calves is 

 the deeply rooted prejudice of breeders that heavy feeding 

 from the first is essential and that, at whatever cost, the 

 calf must grow. Instead I have emphasized securing first a 

 healthy body, knowing that in the end the healthy calf makes 

 the greatest and best growth. The rule appears to be that 

 with a moderate number of bacteria in the gastro-intestinal 

 tract, a small volume of milk may be digested and assimilated 

 with a minimum febrile disturbance, but, when the volume 

 of milk is greater, the febrile reaction is stronger. Diges- 

 tion may be regarded as a triumph of the digestive ferments 

 over the bacteria present, by which they convert food eaten 

 into products which may be absorbed and used by the body 

 for its maintenance and growth. If the bacteria present 

 prevail over the digest i\ e ferments, products are formed and 



