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This may be one rcnfon wliy fpaycd licifcrs are tlioiiglit to 

 fatten more kindly at three years old, and to be better 

 fledied than open heifers. Tlie method of treatment de- 

 pends, in fome meafure, on the time of rearing ; the winter 

 calves require more milk than the later-dropt ones. 



" Here the general treatment of a calf dropt at Chrillmas 

 may be faid to be this ; fueks twice a day the firft fortnight, 

 lias the pail twice a day for the next month or fix weeks, 

 and once a day for a nionth or fix weeks longer, with hay in 

 a rack and turnips in a manger, and fometimes with oats and 

 beans among the turnips, which lafl, after a calf has taken 

 freely to them, ferve as both meat and drink. In this 

 confills the chief peculiarity of the Norfolk method of 

 rearing calves, which may be faid to be with milk and tur- 

 nips ; the laft a Ipecies of food, which, in every other part 

 of the kingdom is, it is believed, entirely neglefted or un- 

 tliought of. As foon as the weather gets warm enough, 

 the calves are turned out in the day among the fattening 

 bullocks, or on to a patch of turnips, or upon a piece of 

 wheat, or a forward grafs-piecc, and houfed again at night, 

 until the days growing long and the nights warm, and the 

 clover and darnel have rifen to a full bite, when they are 

 turned out altogether, and continue to have the firft bite of 

 every thing which is good and palatable to them throughout 

 the fummer. This may be called the general treatment of 

 calves dropt at Chriftmas ; but the management of no two 

 farmers is exaflly the fame." 



Calves, 'weaning of. The moft fuitable feafon for this 

 bufinefs is the early part of the fpring, as fuch calves as are 

 weaned at a late period feldom attain any great fize. The 

 beft means of accomplifliing this is by gradually taking them 

 from the cow, and afterwards diminifiimg the quantity and 

 quality of the milk, or other liquid with which ihey are fed, 

 until they become capable of being fupported on grafs alone, 

 or with fome fort of cut food. The method of management 

 in thcfe cafes is thus ftated by the author of the " Synopfis 

 of Hufbandry ;" " having a cow li-iited to the purpofe which 

 drops a calf, let it be lucklcd in the ufual mode, till it 

 hath completed the third week of its age ; when, inftead of 

 turning it to the cow, it is to be fuckled by thrufting its head 

 into a pail of new milk, and the finger of the perfon who 

 diretts the bufinefs is to fupply the place of a teat. At firft 

 the calf may be rather awkward at fuckmg the finger, but 

 this will loon become familiar, and after a while a lock of 

 hay may be fubftituted for the teat ; and as the calf advances 

 in age it will tuck the milk out of the pail without any 

 affillance. The milk fliould at firft be given, as obferved 

 before, free of adulteration ; but, at the end of the firft 

 month, a little milk pottage may be added to each ferving. 

 This method fhould be continued till the calf is twelve or 

 fourteen weeks old, lowering the milk pottage by degrees, 

 till at length it will be brought to fimple water only. At 

 the feafun when the calf is thus weaned from the teat, it 

 ought to be turned abroad in the day-time into a fmall clofe 

 or orchard near the yard, where there is a good bite of grafs, 

 which may be expcfted at the time of the year when the 

 weaning calves are of this age ; and as there will generally 

 be more than one calf weaned in a feafon, they will each be 

 company for the other, and become in a (hort time reconciled 

 to their fituation. It is to be obferved, that this pafture 

 fhould be at fome diftance from that whereon the dams are 

 turned, and that there be neither ponds nor ditches, nor any 

 annoyance which might endanger the hves of thefe youthful 

 animals ; and in order to habituate them-ftill more to their 

 pafture, the milk-pottage fhould be carried clean to them at 

 each of their feeding hours. For the firft month or fix 

 weeks the calves ought every night to be brought out of the 



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meadow and lodged in the pens; but, aftirthis time, they 

 may be left in the pafture as well in the night feafon as in 

 the day, and at this time their food may be lowered by de- 

 grees, till, as was before obferved, it be at length reduced 

 to fimple water only, for when the calves get to the age of 

 tivelveor fourteen weeks, they will no longer require the aid 

 ot this fnfteiiancc, but will be able to fatisfy their appetite-! 

 by grafs. Care, however, mull be taken throughout the 

 fummer, that they be frequently (hifted from one pafture to 

 another, in order that they may be kept up in good flefh, 

 and enabled to grow away with the utmoft celerity. At 

 Michaelmas, or foon after, the calves (liould be taken into 

 the yaid; and if they were allowed the indulgence of a 

 fmall clofe to thcmfelves, it would be ftill better. And here 

 their tafte muft be gratified with the beft and fwecteft hay 

 that can be procured, with an outlet on a dry pafture, where 

 in fine open weather they may be fuffered to enjoy them- 

 felves ; and it would redound greatly to their welfare, if, 

 on the approach cf winter, a fhed was to be crtfted for them 

 to repofe in during the night, and for flielter in tempcftuous 

 days. So effential are warmth and good living to young 

 animals of every denomination, that the care which has been 

 taken of them in their early days will be manifcll in every 

 ftate of their future growth. Nor is there any ftock which 

 will pay better for this cautious management in their youth 

 than thofe of t!ie cow kind: for if they are ftinted in their 

 feed, or carelefsly attended whilft in their growing ftate,_ 

 they will never arrive to that fize wliich they would other- 

 wile have done, and confequently the lofs will be perpetually 

 felt by the farmer who attempts to raife milch kine of his 

 own breed, without giving them a due attendance in the firft 

 year. When the calves have atttained their firft year, they 

 are called ^/r//, or yearlings; and though at this time they may 

 be able to mix with the herd, yet he thinks it would be moft 

 prudent, if not attended with too great an inconvenience, to 

 fuffcr them to remain in a pafture by them.felves. But if 

 this cannot be done, let them be turned out with the dry 

 ftoek, and not permitted to run w ith the cows, as this mi"ht 

 probably be the occafion of ti'.eir tiiking bull ; a meafure 

 v\'hich Ihouldat thistime be cautioufly guarded aTainft, as fuch 

 buds which propagate at tliis early age will receive a check 

 in their growth on this account ; and if, during the fucceed- 

 ing whiter, they were to be managed as before du tded, he is 

 of opinion that their future growth would be found to pay 

 ample intereft for the fodder that is now given them ; only 

 this is to be obferved, that as their Itrength is now con- 

 fiderably augmented, a lefs valuable fodder may fuffice, and 

 good pea-ftraw may well fupply the place of hay. Such 

 farmers who have low ruftiy meadows, where there is fre- 

 quently a length of /;■;/ in the winter, may in this fecond 

 year turn the calves into them, and here thev will meet with 

 plenty of nourifiiing food, wliilft the weatlier is fair and 

 open. At two years old the heifer may be fuffered to take 

 bull ; but. it would in his opinion be ftill better for the cow, 

 and more to the intereft of the farmer, if he were to wait a 

 year longer ere the bufinefs be completed." 



From the great fcarcity of milk, various fubftitutes liave 

 been propofed for the early periods of weaning, fome of 

 which feem well calculated for the ufe they are deligned. 

 The method propofed by the duke of Northumberland ig 

 to take one gallon of fleimmcd milk, and to about a pint 'of 

 it add half an ounce of common treacle, ftirring it until it is 

 well mixed ; then to take one ounce of linlccd-oil cake 

 finely pulverized, and with the hand let it fall gradually in 

 very fmall quantities into the milk, ftirring it in the mean 

 time with a fpoon or ladle, until it be thoroughly incorpo- 

 rated ; then let the mixture be put into the other part of the 



milk. 



