34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



(lay, in tlie morning and at evening, when they generally receive as 

 large a quantity as their craving appetites can take. Hence the diges- 

 tive organs are necessarily impaired, and numerous animals either become 

 tainted with disease, or perish from the inattention of their keepers ; 

 wliereas by feeding them tlirice a day, at equidistant intervals, and 

 allowing sufficient room for exercise, (when they are not intended to be 

 fivttened,) they will not only be preserved in health, but they will also 

 greatly improve in condition. 



" Whatever food be allowed to young calves, care should also be taken 

 not to change it too suddenly. A calf must have attained a certain 

 degree of strength before it can dispense with the food most natural to 

 its age, and thrive without the aid of milk ; it should always, therefore, 

 be allowed as long as possible ; but even when that has been withdrawn, 

 and the animal has begun to eat grass, still the substitutes that had been 

 emi)loyed in lieu of milk should be partly continued until his appetite 

 prefer the pasture. It is a common notion, that provided young stock 

 acquire size, their condition is immaterial ; and, after the first winter, 

 they are generally turned into the toughest pasture, and kept during the 

 following winter on straw, with, perhaps, a little inditferent hay. This, 

 when they are intended to be sold to the fatting grazier, may be the 

 most profitable mode, and, in some situations, it is the only one that can 

 be adopted ; but when they are meant to be reared for the breed, it is 

 absolutely requisite, as the oidy means of bringing them to perfect 

 maturity, and improving their qualities, that they should be kept on 

 good pasture during the summer, and allowed roots with some sound 

 hay in the winter, and green food in the spring. A contrary mode, 

 though the most economical, is decidedly disadvantageous ; for the worst 

 breed will ultimately be improved by good feeding, while the best will 

 degenerate under a system of starvation." 



Ill most of these modes of feeding, it will be observed that 

 the great object in view is the raising of cattle, without inter- 

 fering with the products of the dairy. That this is desirable 

 will be seen at once, when we estimate the amount of milk 

 necessarily consumed by a calf, wdiich is fed from the cow, until 

 old enough to subsist on solid food. In this section of the 

 country, where butter and cheese are manufactured, each 

 cow is estimated to make an annual return of from thirty to 

 sixty dollars ; where milk is sold directly from the farm, to 

 consumers in our large cities, the return is much larger. It is 

 only, therefore, in the remotest regions, that the plan of allow- 

 ing calves to run with the cow for months can be practiced 



