SKIMMED MILK FOE CALF. 237 



used in its stead, with skim-milk. In fact, if you have 

 plenty of skim-milk, an excellent calf may be raised on 

 this alone. But it often occurs that more calves are to be 

 raised than the skim-milk will feed. Skim-milk is much 

 more valuable as food than is generally supposed. It con- 

 tains all the qualities of the milk, except the cream. The 

 casein, the most valuable food constituent of the milk, and 

 the milk sugar or whey, are still in it. If you feed only 

 skim-milk to a healthy calf, it will require, on an average, 

 from fifteen to twenty pounds of milk to make one pound 

 of live weight during the first ninety days, if the calf is 

 given all it wants ; and a good eater will gain two and a half 

 pounds per day. We have often had calves seventy days 

 old fed with one-half pound of flax-seed and one and a half 

 pounds of oat-meal each, with twenty pounds of skim-milk 

 per day, that have gained in weight thirty to thirty-seven 

 pounds in ten days an average of over three and one- 

 fourth pounds each, per day. The flax-seed and oat-meal 

 are boiled, and then mixed with the milk. The average 

 weight of these calves, when dropped, was about sixty 

 pounds ; their average weight at seventy days was two 

 hundred and thirty pounds they had consequently gained 

 2.42 pounds per day. They were fed new milk for one 

 week, then half new and half skim-milk for another week, 

 then upon skim-milk and four ounces of boiled flax-seed 

 each, per day; at thirty-four days old flax-seed increased to 

 one-half pound and one-half pound oat-meal added; the 

 latter was increased to one pound in a few weeks, and 

 afterwards another half pound added. These calves were 

 small, but excellent eaters, and made an extra gain. But 

 we have generally succeeded with the ration first given in 

 making an average growth of two pounds per day, for the 

 first ninety days. We expect thrifty calves to reach three 

 hundred pounds at three months. We have calves at this 

 writing forty to fifty days old, that are gaining two pounds 



