224 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 
successive years. At eighteen months of age there was apparently 
no less constitutional vigor manifested by the animals that were 
in: poor condition at fifteen months of age, due to feeding them 
substitutes for skim milk, than by the animals that received skim 
milk, and which were in better condition at that age. 
The Dairy Calf.’—The main point to be borne in mind in the 
feeding and the development of the dairy calf is to guard against 
an accumulation of fat in the animal, which would seriously inter- 
fere with the usefulness of the future cow in the dairy. Feeds of a 
fattening tendency are, therefore, to be avoided, and only such 
feeds are given as will develop a vigorous muscular frame and bone 
structure. With this end in view, the feeding of full milk to the 
‘dairy calf is discontinued after a couple of weeks, or before, in case 
of milk rich in butter fat, and separator skim milk is fed in its 
place, the change from one feed to another being made gradually, 
so as not to give rise to digestive disorders. The equivalent of 
about two ounces of flaxseed meal, boiled into a jelly with water 
(one part meal to six of water), is fed daily with the skim milk. 
At two to three weeks of age, other feeds are given, preferably oats, 
wheat middlings, or a mixture of both. Some feeders report good 
results from feeding farm-grains with skim milk after the second 
week. The calves will gradually learn to eat hay, if it be placed 
before them; a fine quality of clover or alfalfa: ‘hay or any good 
early-cut mixed hay is generally reserved for this purpose. The 
object in view throughout the first year should be to keep calves 
in a healthy growing condition, and to feed plenty of hay so as 
to develop the digestive apparatus of the calf, along with easily 
digestible feeds that will cause a rapid, normal growth without de- 
position of unnecessary body fat. Other desirable feeds for older- 
calves than those mentioned are mill feeds, small grains, especially 
barley, oil meal, brewers’ and distillers’ grains, and malt sprouts. 
Cotton-seed meal, on the other hand, should be fed only sparingly, 
or not at all. 
Fall calves, as a rule, are to be preferred to spring calves on 
dairy farms, both because they can receive better care and attention 
during the winter months than in summer, and because they will 
go on pasture in the spring at an age when their digestive apparatus 
is developed so that the green grass may form their main feed, 
supplemented with some grains when pastures are scant. The time 
7 Adapted from an article by the author, on “ Feeding Dairy Cattle,” 
in Cycl. Amer. Agr, vol. iii. 
