40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and sometimes in one or two, removed from a family of vigor- 

 ous, nervous, muscular and active horses, all traces of those 

 characteristics which have given them value. What they had 

 acquired on the homely fare of their native hills, they lost when 

 brought and bred into greater prosperity. The hard and wiry 

 tendon vanished ; the elastic and well-defined muscle was 

 rounded off into graceful effeminacy ; the carcase and adipose 

 tissue had gained the ascendency, through the aid of good 

 living, and a luxurious life from youth upward. Some of us 

 have seen a promising heifer calf, the offspring of a good 

 milker, pampered in its youth, and fed until it became anv 

 thing but the dairy animal which its ancestry promised. 



"We would not advocate a deficiency of food for young dairy 

 stock ; but we would argue against an excess of articles of 

 a highly stimulating quality. The plan of tlie Ayrshire farmers 

 is undoubtedly a good one — to take their calves early from the 

 dams, feed them from the dish, and bring them to solid food or 

 pasture as soon as the condition of the young stomach will 

 allow. Instead of linseed meal, they use a great quantity of 

 oatmeal — an article of food much less predisposing to fat, and 

 keeping up a vigorous growth. We have in New England the 

 best quality of English hay as a basis of feeding ; and after the 

 calf is weaned, or after he has had milk enough to give him a 

 fair introduction into life, hay, in the form of hay-tea, and 

 afterwards of rowen, is undoubtedly the best food the animal 

 can have, especially when aided by a few roots, such as turnips 

 or carrots. In some cases milk is abandoned at a very early 

 age, and skimmed milk is advantageously used as a siibstitute. 

 We would not recommend the use of grain, especially that 

 containing a superabundance of oily matter, as Indian corn or 

 linseed, for young dairy stock. Perhaps corn-meal sparingly, 

 or barley or outmeal, may be used in winter, should the animal 

 seem not to thrive well. But a calf that is properly weaned and 

 fed after weaning, and furnished with a good pasture, will be 

 carried through the first winter most satisfactorily on good 

 sweet hay, especially rowen, with roots. In this way can a 

 uniform and well-balanced animal l)e produced, wliich, when 

 put to daii-y service, will not become coarse and raw-boned in 

 her apj3carance, nor take on flesh at the expense of the milk-pail. 



