[30 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



confirm this opinion. For the same reason, we may also learn another 

 lesson from the natural habits of the animal that the supplies of food 

 should rather be moderate and frequent than larger in quantity after 

 long intervals. . . . We find that calves which run with the cow thrive 

 better than others, because they can draw their supplies of milk 

 frequently, and in small quantities in fact, at such times as they feel 

 the want. . . . No doubt it may be questioned whether this is an 

 economical method, and one desirable for general adoption ; but there 

 are cases which render such a course absolutely essential to success ; 

 and, I believe, in many other cases the question of economy is too 

 often viewed under the contracted aspect of present cost rather than 

 future return." 



In " The Farm and the Daily," by Professor Sheldon, the following 

 practical remarks occur : " I have found it a good plan, after the first 

 three or four days, to put a pinch or two of condimental meal into the 

 milk given to a calf, and, within reasonable limits, this practice may 

 well be followed so long as the calf receives liquid food at all from 

 a pail. The condiment stimulates digestion, gives a tone to the 

 intestinal organs, and is, as a rule, a safeguard against scour, or undue 

 relaxation of the bowels, which is in many places a cause of much 

 fatality. A handful of oatmeal, carefully dried, is also a good thing to 

 put into the milk after the first week is over, and it will gradually 

 accustom the calf to greater changes of food later on. 



" Calves dropped in February or March will, as a rule, be fit to turn 

 out in a croft, in the daytime, some time in May, and they will quickly 

 take to grass as supplementary food. But, before turning-out time 

 comes, they should be taught to eat linseed cake, and this is easiest 

 done by putting bits of it into their liquid food. Now, this linseed 

 sake should be continued until they are a year or fifteen months old, 

 that is, until they are turned out to their second summer's grass. 

 Linseed cake, indeed, is the only effectual preventive out of many that 

 I have tried for ' black-leg,' on a farm subject to that malady. The 

 quantity of cake young calves will eat, when they are out on their first 

 summer's grass, is not much say half of a pound to one pound each 

 per day ; but as the autumn wears along they will eat more." 



A well-informed correspondent writing in the "Dumfries and Gallo- 

 way Courier" (July 2nd, 1890,) states that probably the difference 

 between the richness of the first and second halves of the milk drawn 

 from a cow is not sufficiently taken into account in the practical work 

 of calf- rearing. It is generally known that the "stoppings" or portion 

 of the milk taken from the cow j ust before she is milked dry are much 

 richer than the average. But there is a greater diversity in the quality 

 of the second and first halves drawn than is generally supposed. The 

 following is a brief outline of a system adopted in calf-rearing, whereby 

 it is possible to give new milk to calves, and yet, by reducing the pro- 

 portion of butter fat in the natural food supplied to them, to have a 

 large proportion of that constituent of the milk available for the manu- 

 facture of butter. The plan adopted is this : At milking-time two 

 large vessels are put outside the byre-door, one marked " Dairy " and 



