20 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



thereto. This method of furnishing the requisite 

 amount of fat to be fed with skim milk was more neces- 

 sary before separated milk was available than it is now, 

 as when separated milk is fed soon after milking it is not 

 necessary to add heat from an artificial source. It may 

 still be advantageously practiced where separated skim 

 milk is not to be had, and where a supply of flaxseed 

 is also on hand. The jelly may be made from linseed 

 if more convenient. 



The amount to be fed may be regulated, for a time 

 at least, by the influence that the meal or the jelly exer- 

 cises on the digestion. If too much is fed, the diges- 

 tion will be unduly lax, a condition that is easily cor- 

 rected by reducing the quantity fed. Usually a heaped 

 spoonful of the ground flax, or two of the oil meal, or, 

 say, two-thirds of a cupful of the jelly, will be sufficient 

 at the first. After a time the limit of the profitable 

 feeding of the flax or oil meal may not always be in- 

 dicated by the character of the digestion. There comes 

 a time when the amount consumed without disturbing 

 digestion would be too costly for the most profitable 

 feeding. The fact remains that this most excellent food 

 adjunct may be more or less used with profit in all or 

 nearly all kinds of calf rearing. The physiological in- 

 fluence which it exerts is most beneficial apart from the 

 nutrition which it furnishes. 



The supplementary concentrates ferl will vary with 

 the age of the calf, with the precise object of the feed- 

 ing, and with the concentrates that may be available in 

 any given locality. For calves that are quite young, 

 meal without coarse hulls is the most suitable, as these 

 are irritating to the digestive organs, but after feeding 

 upon it for a time, say, two or three weeks, coarser meal 

 may be given instead. 



The relative proportion of the protein fed in the 

 concentrates will be the greatest with calves that are 



