40 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



a fire. The first of these methods is the simplest, but 

 is open to the objection that it adds too much to the 

 bulk of the milk. 



The gruel added usually fails to raise the tempera- 

 ture to normal, but materially reduces the amount of 

 hot water that it may be necessary to add. Heating on 

 the fire involves labor, and may also be inconvenient. 

 As skim milk obtained from the separator on the farm 

 may be fed at a normal or nearly normal temperature, 

 this fact alone gives it a long lead over other skim milk. 



When any considerable number of calves are fed 

 simultaneously stanchions add greatlyto the convenience 

 of feeding, so much so that they are a real necessity. For 

 the construction of these see page 370. The milk is first 

 apportioned in the feeding pails placed in the alley in 

 front of the stanchions. While this is being done the 

 calves will get in line in the stanchions and will be so 

 fastened. The pails are then placed in the mangers, 

 where the calves take the milk. To quiet the sucking 

 propensity which drinking milk arouses, a little dry 

 meal may be thrown in the bottom of each pail, not 

 liberating the calves until it is consumed, or, if desired, 

 the pails may be removed and the fodder fed. Thus 

 indulgence in that baneful habit of sucking after having 

 drank the milk is entirely prevented. 



Furnishing salt to calves of sufficient age should 

 not be neglected, and the same is true of water. Dur- 

 ing the first weeks of a calf's life it is probably not 

 necessary to add salt to the food. Particularly would 

 this seem to be true of milk provided by cows that are 

 given sufficient salt. But when calves take other food, 

 it would seem to be as necessary to give them some salt, 

 as more mature animals. Until they learn to take salt 

 from a box at will, there is probably no better way of 

 giving it than by sprinkling a little into the meal given 

 to them, beginning with a trace, and at no time adding 



