CHAP. vi. FEEDING OF CALVES. 137 



and given to the calves at every feed. When about six weeks old the 

 calves receive along with the milk and gruel (now increased to about 

 12 gills per feed) from | Ib. to f Ib. of linseed-cake per day, along with 

 a few handfuls of sliced turnips, and this treatment is continued with a 

 gradual increase in both liquid and solid food until the age of three 

 and a half to four months is reached when the liquid, which by this 

 time has been increased to about 16 gills per feed, is entirely stopped, 

 and the calf, like the older cattle, has to depend entirely on solids. 

 Mr. Ralston also records the successful practice of an enterprising 

 dairy farmer who, while following in its general features the plan above 

 sketched, separates the cream from his. milk by mechanical means, and 

 gives the skim-milk thus obtained to the calves in the warm state as it 

 comes from the cow. He attributes much of his success as a calf- 

 rearer to this feature of his practice, which corroborates the experience 

 of Mr. Gilbert Murray, of Elvaston, Derby, in two particulars viz., 

 the value of fresh sweet separated milk, and the great importance of 

 giving it at a proper temperature. 



Mr. W. H. Ralston, Culmore, Stranraer, Wigtonshire, has successfully 

 adopted the following method of rearing cross-bred calves out of his 

 Ayrshire cows, which are kept either for the sale of milk or for cheese- 

 making, according to the state of the market. For the first fortnight as 

 much new milk as the calf can safely take is given. Then skim-milk is 

 substituted for a portion of the new milk, with a little boiled oatmeal 

 added. Thereafter only skim-milk is allowed, with a mixture of 

 two parts oatmeal and one part linseed-meal, steamed together. By 

 this time the calf will eat a little hay, and, so soon as it can be got to 

 take it, a small quantity of finely ground linseed-cake is given. This 

 diet is continued until it is considered safe to substitute, in place of a 

 portion of the skim-milk, fresh-drawn whey. The one gradually 

 takes the place of the other, until whe}^ is the only liquid food given. 

 One season, when the new milk was sold to the Dunragit Creamery, 

 and when consequently no whey was available, butter-milk was bought 

 from the Creamery at %d. per gallon, and Mr. Ralston thought it made 

 better calves than anything else he ever tried. Indeed, although 

 unfortunately we have no definite detailed experience of individual 

 calf-rearers who use butter-milk, yet it may safely enough be asserted 

 that on this material calves thrive admirably, and grow into well- 

 developed excellent cattle. 



A gentleman who rears calves extensively in Ireland viz., Mr. 

 George Henry, of Ennismore, Listowel, County Kerry gives an 

 account of his system, according to which, it may be added, he reared, 

 in 1889, no fewer than 200 calves, all of his own breeding. For 

 four days the calf gets its mother's milk, for the reason that it 

 acts medicinally upon the young animal. For the first fortnight it is 

 fed three times daily on milk from which a little cream has been taken. 

 In abstracting the cream Mr. Henry does not use the separator, but 

 the Jersey creamer, which, after a thorough trial, he strongly recom- 

 mends for this purpose. From the time they are three weeks old, the 

 calves get a supplement of boiled linseed mixed with the meal and 



