1024 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part UU 



two, about tiic Hire of a walnut, once a day, or oflener, to each calf. These balls, being very nutritioug, 

 in some degree supply the place of milk, and at the same time the spirituous mixture operates on the 

 creatures as a soporific, and thus, by composing them to sleep, increases their disposition to fatten ; but 

 where milk can be had in sufficient abundance, it is never worth while to have recourse to these factitious 

 aids. When the demands of the calf, however, are beyond the ability of the cow, these balls come season- 

 ably to their relief. In order that the calves may be provided with sufficient store of milk, the pastures 

 should be changed, whenever the cows are found to be deficient in this particular; and in the winter 

 lime, such food as is of a succulent nature, as grains, turnips, &c., should be always at hand to supply the 

 want of grass; and these, with a due allowance of the sweetest hay, should be their constant aliment 

 during the time that the cows are confined to the yard. 



6847. The prices of suckling calves vary according to the goodness of the young animal, and the time of 

 year wherein the purchase is made. In general, sucklers fetch the largest price in summer, when veal 

 sells the cheapest ; and the reason of this arises from the smaller number to be met with at that time than 

 in the spring. When calves are slaughtered at six weeks or two months old, the veal is seldom of a good 

 colour ; neither has the flesh of these young calves a taste equal to that of animals suffered to live a few 

 weeks longer. To attain colour and flavour, it is necessary that the calves should be maintained with 

 plenty of milk, and manageil as before directed, till they arrive at the age of eight or ten weeks, according 

 to the season of the year, the more or less kindly state of the calf, the particular demand of the markets, 

 or other accidental circumstances. In the summer season, it may be proper to dispose of them at an 

 earlier period than in the winter; not only on account of their growing away with greater celerity in 

 warm weather, but likewise because of the increased demand for small veal, which is then most saleable. 

 During the last three or four weeks, blood should frequently be drawn from the calf, which will be a 

 likely means towards rendering the veal of a colour delicately white; a circumstance so much attended 

 to by the butcher, that he will commonly depreciate such calves as, from the appearance of their eyes, are 

 likely to die black, as they term it, though in other respects not to be despised. 



6848. Calves suckled on their own dams will, generally speaking, fatten in a shorter time than those' 

 afterwards brought in to supply their places. The first obvious reason for this difference in their favour 

 is, their having been permitted to remain in the place where they were first dropped, and having always 

 continued to suck the milk of their dam, which must in all reason be supposed of a more nutritious quality 

 to them than that of any other cow. Secondly, the cow having so lately calved, the aliment nourishes and 

 fattens in a higher degree than when the animal becomes stale-milched. Cow calves are observed to fatten 

 more kindly than the male or bull-calves; and the latter are much coarser grained than the former, and 

 their flesh less delicate in taste. Calves of the largest size are fattened in Essex, where the business of 

 suckling seems to be better understood, and more properly conducted, than in any other county, and where 

 the farmer keeps the calves to a greater age than in any other part of the kingdom. 



' 6849. Marshal is clearly of opinion, that to suckle calves in general after they are ten weeks old is bad 

 management; for his account in this respect is uniform, those of nine or ten having paid as much a week 

 as those of twelve or thirteen ; and, although a calf of six weeks old may suck nearly as much milk as a 

 calf of twelve weeks old, yet for the first month or five weeks the quantity is considerably less, and this 

 advantage of their infancy is doubly as valuable to nine as it is to twelve weeks. There can be no doubt 

 but that the profit of this system of fattening depends materially upon the quickness of return. 



6850. In some districts, barley-meal, linseed boiled into a kind of jelly, and similar articles, are given to 

 calves in the course of fattening ; but the methods above described are greatly superior, although it must 

 be allowed that they may sometimes be considerably more expensive. 



6851. The art of fattening calves for the butcher is practised in the parish of Avondale or Strathaven, 

 with a degree of success, according to Alton, which has had no parallel in Scotland. The superior excel- 

 lence of the Strathaven veal has long been proverbial in the Glasgow and Edinburgh markets, where 

 Strathaven veal and that of the best quality have become synonymous terms. The mode of feeding them 

 is easy and natural. They are fed on milk, with seldom any admixture ; and they are not permitted to 

 suckle their dams, but are taught to drink the milk from a dish. The only art used in feeding calves in 

 the vicinity of Strathaven is, to give them, after the first two or three weeks, abundance of milk , to keep 

 plenty of dry litter under them, in a place that is well aired, neither too hot nor too cold ; and to exclude 

 the light, as they are apt to become too sportive when exposed to much light If a calf becomes costive^ 

 a little bacon or mutton broth will give it ease ; and if it begins to purge, a small quantity of the rennet 

 used in coagulating milk will cure the disease. {Aiton's Dairy Husb, p. 89.) 



SuBSKCT. 6. Fattening Homed Cattle. 



6852. The fattening of cattle demands considerable and constant attention, and the grand object is to- 

 fatten quickly. An animal when in a state of rearing may be considered as a vessel open at both ends, in 

 which the supply and the waste being nearly equal it can never be filled : fattening an animal may be con- 

 sidered as an attempt to fill the vessel, and this can only be done by excess of supply. The waste being 

 the same as before, this excess must be great ; if it is not so, the vessel may be filled to a greater height 

 than before without ever becoming full. An important hint might be taken from this simile by many 

 fahners, who know little of the difference between feeding and fattening. We have known cattle, sheep, 

 and swine kept for months, and fed with a view to fattening them, without their gaining a pound of meat 



6853. The food on which cattle is fatted in summer is grass, commonly on pastures, but, in a few in- 

 stances, cut and consumed in feeding-houses or fold-yards : in winter by far the greater number are fatted 

 on turnips, along with hay or straw ; oil-cake, carrots, potatoes, and other articles of food, are used occa- 

 sionally, and in particular districts, oil-cake chiefly for feeding the larger animals ; but few, compara- 

 lively, are fatted on any of these without the addition of turnips of one or other of the varieties generally 

 cultivated. A considerable number of cattle are also fatted on the offals of distilleries, when dis- 

 tilling from corn ; a source of supply, the frequent interruption of which has been much felt in those 

 situations where the soil does not permit the extensive cultivation of turnips. It is seldom or never the 

 practice of the best managers to fatten cattle with roots or other winter food on the field, during that 

 season ; but to confine them to houses or fold-yards, where they are well littered, regularly fed, not liable 

 to be disturbed, and sheltered from the inclemency of the weather, and where the manure they make is 

 an object of very considerable importance, and of much greater value than if it were dropped at random 

 over a whole field. 



6854. The age at which cattle are fatted depends upon the manner in which they have been reared; 

 upon the properties of the breed in regard to a propensity to fatten earlier or later in life ; and on the 

 circumstances of their being employed in breeding, in labour, for the dairy, or reared solely for the butcher. 

 In the latter case, the most inproved breeds are fit for the shambles when about three years old, and very 

 few of any large breed are kept more than a year longer. As to cows and working oxen, the age of fat- 

 teTiing must necessarily be more indefinite ; in most instances the latter are put up to feed after working 

 three years, or in the seventh or eighth year of their age. In general, it may be said, that the small breeds 

 of cattle are fatted on pastures, though .sometimes finished off on a few weeks' turnips; and that large 

 cattle, at least in the north, are chiefly fatted in stalls or fold-yards, by means of turnips, and the other 

 articles before mentioned 



6855. Stall-feeding is the most common, and, when judiciously conducted, probably the most eligible 

 method, in regard to the cattle themselves, the economy of food, and the expense of farm buildings. The' 

 small shed and fold yard, called a hammel (2831.), are used only for the larger breeds; but they do not 



