ILLINOIS STATE DAIi- YMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 115 



dairy cows on skim milk than new milk. Such a calf is less inclined to 

 drift to fat and it will have a larger stomach, for it will require more 

 feed; and it will make a better cow and will cost considerably less money 

 to raise it. There are many mistakes made along this line. I see so 

 many of them in my own experience, or in my creamery work with my 

 patrons. 



I want to tell you how I cure the horns on my young calves. Just 

 blister them with caustic potash before that little button adheres to the 

 head. The calves will not suffer at all. Do it when they are a week old. 

 Just as soon as they get straightened up they will hardly notice it. Put 

 the caustic potash on a stick and don't get on so much that it will run down 

 and make the blister too large. You want to wet the horns all over and 

 be careful that you get the potash all over the horn, but don't get on so 

 much that it will run down on to the head and make the blister too large, 

 because you make unnecessary suffering by doing that. My foreman 

 treated 27 calves in the winter of 1887 and 1898 in that way and there 

 was only one horn out of that 27, or rather 54 horns, that he did not have 

 a perfect job on. It was his first experience. He did it under my instruc- 

 tions. It does not require a great deal of experience to do it. It is a 

 humane act to remove the horns. 1 lost a cow recently, she having been 

 borned by one of the other cows. I have lost two cows in the last few 

 years in that way. 



This question of raising calves on skim milk. There are a few 

 points to which if they are adhered to you are sure of success. One is, 

 the milk must be sweet, and it must be at the temperature of the mother's 

 milk, or 100 degrees, and don't feed too much of it. There are 10 calves 

 injured by feeding too much skim milk, where there is one that don't 

 get enough. Take a young calf, not more than four quarts to a feed twice 

 a day, 16 lbs a day. This answers the question asked by Mr. Patten about 

 the amount of skim milk. We always measure the milk before feeding 

 it. , ■ i 



