84 THE COW 



gestion or other ills. But under the approved 

 management of the modern dairy herd, all this is 

 changed. The calf is torn from its mother for- 

 ever when only twenty-four or forty-eight hours 

 old, is taught to drink its milk out of a tin pail 

 instead of nursing from its mother's udder, and 

 after a few weeks at longest it is fed skim-milk 

 instead of the rich creamy fluid that its dam 

 secrete. It is no wonder that indigestion is some- 

 times a veritable scourge among young calves. 

 The real marvel is that they do not all die. We 

 do incredible violence to. every principle of calf 

 hygiene. Nature provided that the food for the 

 calf must be very slowly drawn from the mother 

 and abundantly mixed with saliva in the course 

 of suckling. Moreover, it was always at exactly 

 the correct temperature and measured up to the 

 highest standards of bacteriological cleanliness, 

 and was taken in small quantities many times a 

 day. We cause the calf to dump a twelve-hour 

 supply of milk into its stomach at one time in a 

 few big gulps, and, moreover, the temperature is 

 generally too low. Very frequently the feeding 

 pail is seeded with every imaginable variety of 

 germs. In addition to all this, we feed too much. 

 The calf will thrive better if it is never allowed 

 to stuff itself to repletion, if it is fed only enough 

 milk so that it is still a little hungry and eager for 

 more. Perhaps the nursing calf may be allowed 



