250 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



butcher. This whole subject deserves more attention than it 

 has hitherto received. The next thing to be attended to, is the 

 treatment which calves and heifers should receive before they 

 give milk. When taken from the cow, they should be provided 

 with food suited to their condition and health. They should be 

 taught to eat a variety of food, and should have a good supply 

 of pure water. Calves want a large quantity of drink, and it 

 is desirable that they should get the habit of drinking freely, as 

 this is essential to free milkers. They should be treated with 

 the utmost kindness and gentleness, and never teased, or beaten, 

 or frightened, but should be taught to feed from the hand, and 

 to have entire confidence in those who take care of them. 

 Rowen hay, or fine redtop, with a few turnips, or oats, or beans, 

 is the best food for the first winter. They should be well 

 protected from the cold and storms, and not permitted to roam 

 about the fields, shivering in the rain and snow. They should 

 be kept clean and dry, and not suffered to become lousy, but 

 should receive the same care from the first that is bestowed upon 

 cows in milk. In this way only can they be kept in a thriving, 

 healthy condition, and become well developed in all their parts. 

 A calf that is suffering from cold, from vermin, from fear, from 

 want of food, or drink, cannot thrive or be in good health ; its 

 growth will be checked, and it will never be as valuable after- 

 wards. A young animal is more tender and more susceptible 

 of injury than one that is fully grown and has reached its full 

 strength ; and yet many persons will expose a calf to treatment 

 that they would not allow to a cow, or an ox, and the result is 

 what might be reasonably expected. Young animals should be 

 treated with the utmost care and tenderness, and thus they will 

 be kept in a growing state, and be early developed, and fitted 

 for the use for which they are intended. 



Statement of N. H. Warren. 



Gentlemen, — The Ayrshire cow which I offer for premium, 

 was bred from Prince Albert and Jenny Dean's full blood 

 Ayrshire stock, imported by the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Society, and presented to the Middlesex Society, of whose agent 

 I purchased this cow when a calf. 



She has always brought calves in the fall or early winter, and 

 been kept tied up in the barn in the summer and milked until 



