24 



AT CALVING TIME. 



The cow should be placed in a box stall a few days before she is 

 due to calve. She should be kept on a somewhat lighter ration than 

 usuial and her food should be rather laxative in character, bran, 

 clover, roots, or ensilage. 



The calf may be left with her for two or three days, She should 

 be milked in addition to what the calf draws from her. In the case 

 of very heavy milking cows likely to suffer from milk fever, it is 

 advisable to stop short of drawing off all the milk for three or four 

 days. This practice has saved us all trouble from milk fever for the 

 last five or six years. 



FEEDING THE CALF. 



The calf should be removed from the cow the second or third 

 day. . It should 'then be taught to drink. This may be done about 

 an follows : Take a quart of warm new milk in a 10-quart pail. Give 

 the calf two fingers to suck air between. Gradually lower its nose 

 into te pail. When it finds milk instead of air entering between the 

 fingers it is likely to relax the neck and start to take milk. Do not 

 sink the nose so far into the milk* as to cover the nostrils. If it will 

 not drink at first, leave it for a few hours to work up an appetite. 

 After a few days it may gradually be weaned from the fingers. 



Whole milk should be fed for at least one week. During the next 

 week the change from whole milk to skim milk should gradually be 

 brought about. Substitute each day a regularly-increasing pro- 

 portion of skim milk for the same amount of whole milk withdrawn. 



The skim milk should be fed warm, from 90 to 100 degrees Fahr., 

 no more and no less. To replace the fat that has been removed from 

 the skim milk, as well as to furnish additional protein, it is well to 

 add some flax seed jelly to the ration. This jelly should be added 

 in small quantities at first and slowly increased. Begin with n 

 dessert spoonful in each portion and gradually increase until about 

 a cupful is being fed night and morning to the three months old 

 calf. 



To prepare the jelly, boil, or rather, steep, one pound of whole 

 flaxseed in water almost boiling, until a thick paste results. Another 

 method of preparation is to take half a cup of ground flax in a quart 

 of water and allow to simmer just below the boiling point until a 



