1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



136 



Baisine^ Calves on the Cow. 



M. J. SMITH, of Northampton, Mass., furnishes 

 the following statement to the Hampden Agricul- 

 tural Society, of his way of raising calves: 



" I give my mode of raising such calves as I ex- 

 ibited at our fair, knowing full well that it is by 

 gleaning a little here and a little there, by our 

 thinking and reading farmers, from agricultural 

 reports and farmers' clubs, that has caused the 

 vast improvment in agriculture which we have wit- 

 nessed within a few years, and raised the standard 

 of the farmer's life and calling. — I have tried most 

 all methods of raising calves. Formerly I raised 

 them by hand, that is learn them to drink from the 

 pail from ^ne to three days old, feeding them on 

 new milk, warm from the cow, from two to four 

 weeks, then changeing gradually to skim milk, that 

 is set the milk for twelve hours, then skim, warm 

 and feed a few days, scalding in some middlings or 

 oatmeal, and so on until the cream is . all taken 

 from the milk. We have also tried the hay tea, as 

 recommended in some agricultural reports, but 

 without any success whatever, and must say that I 

 never raised what a firmer would call a good 

 calf on the hand system, and for a time I gave up 

 raising calves from the fact that I could buy just 

 such herb tea, skim milk calves, from six to eight 

 mouths old, from §3.50 to $5, much less than I 

 could raise them. 



I have come to the conclusion that if a calf is 

 worth raising at all, it is worth raising well. My 

 method is to put two good calves on to one cow. 

 If at the season of the year that stock is kept at 

 the barn, the calves are kept in a stable by them- 

 selves, wtih a manger coevenieiit for feeding; they 

 are turned to the nurse twice in twenty-four hours, 

 just long enough for them to take the milk clean, 

 which is done in a very few minutes. They are 

 then returned to the stable and fed with plenty of 

 rowen hay, with roots of some kind finely cut which 

 they soon learn to eat if placed in the mainger. A 

 light feed of shorts or oats is most excellent, and 

 in the absence of roots is absolutely necessary. — 

 In the summer season, with plenty of feed, I let 

 the nurse and calves run together in pasture, and 

 have no further trouble with them until they come 

 up to the barn, when if they are of proper age, 

 which is at least six months, and if older no harm, 

 they may be shut entirely away from the nurse, 

 and fed on the best hay, with a mess of roots, shorts, 

 or oats, daily. In this way we never have any 

 stunted calves. In this vray there is no standing 

 still 01 going baci three months after weaning, 

 and thfc calf at one yea* old it heavier and worth 

 more money than the average of calves raised in 

 the ordinary way are at two years old. 



But, says the careful farmer, there are objections 

 to your mode of raising calves ; first, they contract 

 a habit of sucking, which they never forget. Sec- 

 ond, the great cost, keeping cows solely for raising 

 calves, would not pay. Third, calves forced along, 

 or bread and buttered up, as the saying is, the first 

 year, are like house plants, and when they come to 

 be exposed, or brought to hard fare, they will wilt. 

 They cannot endure starving and banging, like 

 those that are toughened in raising, and have less 

 conetitutional strength. 



Now I can answer all the objections brought 

 forward, to my own satisfactiyn at least. In regard 

 to the first objection, I have never had any trouble 

 at all. Shut them a part for some weeks and they 



are weaned, and I never knew them to take to 

 sucking again. 



In the second I admit that it costs more to raise 

 a calf well than it does to raise one poorly, but 

 who can afford to raise a calf six months for four 

 dollars ? Yet we tan usually buy them at that price. 

 I think the difference in the cost is not so great as 

 is generally estimated, when we take it into ac- 

 count the time it takes to feed and care for the 

 calf raised by hand, the value of the milk for swine, 

 etc. 



In regard to the third or last objection, I deny 

 that there is any unnatural forcing in my mode of 

 raising. It is only returning to the first and only 

 natural way of rearing young animals of any kind, 

 and I do believe one quart of milk drawn from the 

 cow by the calf, is worth two fed in any other way. 

 The calf that is fed on nutritious food, and kept 

 growing from the time it is dropped, so as to make 

 a year's gain at two year's old, over the common 

 method of raising, is the animal that has got the 

 constitution. The bone is formed, the muscle de- 

 veloped, the chest expanded, and you have a con- 

 stitution grown on to that animal that will last for 

 generations, whereas the feeble and dwarfed con- 

 stitution will be found on the animal that has gone 

 through all the stages of toughening in raising. 



A Chapter on Dogs. 



The prosperity of the canine race and the inter- 

 ests of sheep-growers are totally incompatible. 

 From all parts of the country, we have from farm- 

 ers the expression of a desire to engage in sheep- 

 raising if they could be secure from the destructive 

 raids of dogs. 



The Government is sadly in want of money to 

 liquidate our National debt, and the best suggestion 

 we have seen is from the Ohio Wool growers' Asso- 

 ciation, that a revenue tax of $1 per head be laid 

 upon dogs, which would bring a large annual sum 

 into the National Treasury. 



The damage from dogs in Ohio alone during the 

 past year, is asertained to be $100,000. 



If the proposed tax would decapitate one-half 

 the worthless curs, millions would be saved to the 

 country. 



In the State of Connecticut, such a dog tax has 

 been levied for a number of years, and tha proceeds 

 are paid into the County Treasury and applied to 

 the remuneration of owners of sheep killed by dogs. 

 When the offence of sheep killing is fixed upon a 

 dog, it ii thenceforward the duty of the town select- 

 men to give that dog no peace until his worthless 

 life is destroyed. But notwithstanding this whole- 

 some law, the losses of sheep-growers are not al- 

 ways promptly reimbursed, owing to the negligence 

 of the selectmen. We think that a national tax as 

 proposed by the Ohio Wool Growers, would be a 

 decided improvement, and may be imposed by Con- 

 gress, with decided advantage, not only to our 

 finances, but to the interests of sheep husbandry. 



In the absence, however, of that protection 

 which the law ought to provide, we advise the own- 

 ers of sheep to have a " law unto themselves " and 

 destroy without mercy every sheep-killing cur who 

 crosses their premises. A combination on the part 

 of sheep-growers, with the determined purpose of 

 exterminating the whole thieving, wolfish pack of 

 ill-bred, ill mannered canines that infest the coun- 

 try, would soon effect a radical cure of this pest to 



