FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Young calves suffer very much occasionally from diarrhoea. It is 

 common enough in calves of irom two to seven weeks old when hand 

 ted ; and not infrequently it proves fatal. It is generally occasioned 

 either by undue exposure to the weather, by sudden and injudicious 

 cringe of food, or by unwholesome food. The faeces, from the very 

 commencement of the disease, contain an excessive proportion of 

 mucus, and they afterwards become -fetid and bloody ; and the calf 

 ceases to have appetite, staggers in its walk, and rapidly loses flesh. 

 The common and only treatment used to be to give chalk ; but this 

 either does not cure the disease, or cures it so slowly as to permit of 

 serious damage to the general health, and perhaps constitution. A 

 m'ld purgative, such as 2 oz. of castor oil, should be administered ; 

 a proper proportion of opium should in every case be given with the 

 chalk. The following treatment is also recommended: Linseed oil, 

 i pint ; tincture of opium, i oz.: sweet soirits of nitre, i oz. A wine- 

 glassful two or three times a day. Castor oil and gruel is oiten given 

 to relieve the calf, with very good effect. 



As has been stated, the symptoms which denote the disease irriv 

 proceed from various causes, the relaxed state of the mucous coat 

 of the small intestines being amongst the most simple. In severe 

 cases this may proceed from disease of the liver, stomach, or maniplus, 

 and when the diarrhoea is produced by unwholesome food a change 

 of diet will sometimes effect a cure, but if it does not cease, the fol- 

 lowing is a good astringent and tonic: Prepared chalk, 2 oz. ; gentian 

 root, powdered, 2dr.; opium, powdered, u>dr. This should be well 

 mixed with thick gruel and given once or twice a dav as required. 

 If the animal is very young, a smaller dose should be given. Should, 

 however, the liver be affected, calomel in combination with opium 

 is more to be relied on, half a drachm of each being given twice a day. 

 In bad cases it is a good practice to clear out the intestines by a dose 

 of salts, and afterwards give the calomel and opium. 



Various circumstances, where economy is a great object, tend to 

 diminish the feeding value of our calf food. This is a serious matter. 

 as when the young animal is allowed to lose its calf flesh the founda- 

 tion is lost for future successful feeding. Since the introduction of 

 the home separator, now so widely used, the skim milk is completely 

 robbed of its butter fat, hence the falling off in the duality o-f our 

 calves. An equivalent for this fat can, however, be thus sustained : 

 To two parts of oatmeal add one of wheatmeal, one of ground peas, 

 and one-fourth linseed ; this mixture should be steamed and mixed 

 with the milk. Never let the calf suck once, unless it is of special 

 value, when its mother's milk, drawn naturally, is good for it. But 

 with ordinary calves, if they are taken away at once, and their mothers 

 milked by hand, neither suffers from the separation, as would be the 

 case after a few days. The cow becomes attached to her calf the 

 moment it is dropped. This attachment grows on her, and she will 

 fret at weaning time, whether it be longer or shorter after parturition. 

 The calf will rebel a-fter it is used to sucking, and perhaps have to 

 be partially starved before it will drink freely. Smart dairymen can 

 teach the drinking process very rapidly, but all men are not equally 

 smart or handy about such simple things. 



A calf, and especially the calf of a dairy cow, can be successfully 

 raix'd on skim milk, during the period when it requires milk, and 

 probably better than on full milk, provided the milk is in sound 

 wholesome condition. The skim milk should have gradually intro- 

 duced into it what pollard, cornmeal. or oatmeal the calf can digest. 

 Cod-liver oil is also used with the skim milk with much success. The 

 theory is to replace the fat taken out by the separator. 



If the young calf is never suckled she never expects it. T ne 

 however, .should by all means get its mother's milk at first, because 



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