126 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



allowed to take all the milk they would like. Over-feeding is a 

 fruitful cause of intestinal disorders. 



In Ayrshire, calves intended to be reared for dairy cows are fed on 

 milk for the first four, five, or six weeks, and allowed four or five 

 quarts of new milk a day. Some farmers never give them any 

 other food than milk while they are young, and lessen the quantity 

 when they begin to eat grass or other food ; this they generally do 

 when about five weeks old, if grass can then be had. The milk is 

 wholly withdrawn about the seventh or eighth week. If calves are 

 reared in winter, or before the grass rises in spring, they must be 

 supplied with milk for a longer period, as a calf will not so soon 

 learn to eat hay or straw, or thrive so well on this alone as it will on 

 grass. Other farmers feed partly with meal after the third or fourth 

 week ; or gradually introduce some new whey along with the meal, 

 and afterwards withdraw the milk altogether. Hay-tea, linseed-jelly, 

 oat- and wheat-meal porridge, treacle, &c., are sometimes used with 

 advantage ; but milk, when it can be spared, is by far the best as well 

 as the most natural food. 1 



Where the supply of milk is small, the following plan is recommended 

 by a writer in the " Irish Farmer's Gazette " : 



" Rearing calves without some portion of milk should not be 

 attempted ; but with some milk good calves can be reared as follows : 

 On three qts. linseed-meal and four qts. bean or pea-meal pour 30 

 quarts boiling water, cover up well for 24 hours, then pour it into 

 a boiler holding about 30 quarts more of boiling water ; give it half 

 an hour's boiling, stirring it well all the time ; then put by for use, 

 giving it to the calves milk-warm, mixed with milk. The calf should 

 get its dam's milk for the first week, when the mucilage may be mixed 

 with it, at the rate of one-third mucilage to two-thirds milk, gradually 

 increasing the mucilage and decreasing the milk till the seventh or 

 eighth week, when the milk may be entirely withdrawn. For the first 

 week the calf will require between four and five quarts a-day of milk ; 

 the second week, six quarts mixed milk and mucilage ; third week, 

 seven quarts ; fourth, eight quarts ; fifth, nine quarts ; sixth, ten 

 quarts ; seventh, eleven quarts ; and so on, increasing one quart a-day 

 per week till it is between three and four months old, when it may be 

 weaned. Hay-tea, made by pouring boiling water, on sweet, nutritious 

 hay, is an excellent addition. If you have no milk to begin with, it 

 would be better to leave calf-rearing alone." 



Another mode of rearing calves was suggested by the late Duke 

 of Northumberland, the design of which was to render the use of 

 new milk unnecessary, while the expense was reduced to a very 

 considerable extent. It is effected in the following manner: "Let 

 half an ounce of common treacle be well mixed with a pint of skirn- 

 milk ; then gradually add one ounce of finely-powdered linseed oil- 

 cake, stirring it until the mixture is properly incorporated, after which 

 it is to be added to the remainder of a gallon of milk. The 

 whole, being made nearly of the temperature of new milk, ma} r then 



1 " Aitou's Dairy Husbandry," chap. i. sect. 4. 



