84 DAIRY FARMING 



feed at the end of four weeks. Beginning with the 

 substitution of skim milk, the calf should be fed a hand- 

 ful of ground oats, corn meal, or linseed meal after each 

 milk feed. At the age of one month, when feeding 

 wholly on skim milk, one-half pound of grain may be fed 

 daily to good advantage, and access should be given to 

 good clean hay. The feed should be gradually increased 

 with the growing needs of the animal. 



Calf Stanchions. The feeding of milk to calves 

 becomes a comparatively easy task when the calves are 

 confined in cheap, rigid stanchions like those shown in 

 Fig. 17. When so confined one person can feed half a 

 dozen or more calves at the same time, and can do this 

 with less labor than is ordinarily required to feed one calf. 

 It is well, however, not to keep the calves in the stanch- 

 ions too long at any one time, because of the rigid con- 

 finement. Calves that have formed the "sucking" habit 

 may -be confined to advantage in these stanchions during 

 the night, especially when no small separate pens are 

 available. 



Importance of Correct Feeding. A young calf has a 

 delicate stomach, which is peculiarly liable to be upset by 

 the injudicious feeding of milk and skim-milk. In this 

 respect it differs little from the very young child. The 

 effect that usually follows the injudicious feeding of milk 

 is a case of scours. This trouble can be obviated in a 

 large measure by strictly observing the following precau- 

 tions : First, never feed calves cold milk, but have it as 

 near blood heat as possible ; second, feed milk as fresh as 

 possible and under no circumstances feed it when sour; 

 third, feed milk only from vessels that have been thor- 

 oughly cleaned and scalded; and fourth, carefully avoid 

 over-feeding. Scours or diarrhea is one of the common- 



