124 DISEASES OF VOUNO CALVES. 



iiior the cleaiisincT, will obtain that medicine which nature designed 

 for iier. 



It is usual to take away a quart of the first milk, called the beast 

 ings^ before the calf is allowed to suck. After this the younor animal 

 may be allowed access to the cow, but regulated by the plan of suck- 

 linir or hrintring up on which the grazier may determine. The calf 

 should remain with the mother during a few days at least, or until 

 the milk is proper for the purposes of the dairy 



The mother's first milk is of an aperient quality, and sufficiently so 

 to cleanse the bowels of the calf from the black sticky substance 

 vliich they contain when first dropped. If this should not be effected, 

 a little opening medicine will be necessary. 



RECIPE (No. 61). 

 Aperient Drink for Calves.— Take epsom sails, from one to two ounces, accordin, 

 to the size and age of the calf, and dissolve in half a pint of gruel; llieu add ginge- 

 a scruple ; essence of peppermint, three drops. 



The Epsom salts are as efficacious as any kind of oil for purging 

 young cattle, as well as far less expensive than most oils. Custom, 

 however, has sanctioned the almost general use of castor oil in these 

 cases, and there is no objection to it. 



After the first or second day it will be prudent to tie the calf in a 

 corner of the hovel, that it may not be always sucking the mother, 

 for it might overgorge itself with milk, which would coagulate in the 

 fourth stomach, and choke it up, and produce disease, and even death. 

 If it is evident that the cow would yield more milk than the calf 

 should have, it is the custom, and very properly, to take away a por- 

 tion of It from her two or three times in the day, before the young 

 one is unfastened. 



The time that the calf, after this, remains with the mother is chiefly 

 regulated by the system which the breeder usually pursues, but refer- 

 ence should always be had to the state of the cow's udder. If it is 

 perfectly free from knobs, or kernels, or hardness, the calf may be 

 removed at a comparatively early period ; but if any indwration of the 

 teats appears, the young animal should be permitted to suck a while 

 longer. The frequent sucking will prevent the milk from curdling in 

 the udder; and also the friction and shaking of the bag, by the jolting 

 of the calf's head in the act of sucking, will contribute not a little to 

 the dispersion of the tumours. I have already spoken of garget, and 

 shown that a very prevalent cause of it is the weaning of the calf too 

 soon. 



Few things are more injurious than the exposure of the young calf 

 to wet and cold. It lays a foundation for rheumatism and hoose, 

 which no medical treatment can afterwards remove. 



Fo"" every information with regard to the rearing o* calves from the 

 pail, the reader is referred to the newest edition of The Conaplete 

 Grazier ;" or the treatise on " Cattle," published by tl >; Useful Know 

 ledge Society, both of which should find a place i the library of 

 every agriculturis*^. 



