442 MxVNUAL OP CATTLE-PEEDma 



^2. Calves. 



Ill the foregoing pages we liave endeavored to deduce, 

 from experiments on calves, some principles vi^liicli may 

 serve as the groundwork for practical conclusions. The 

 data for this are, indeed, scanty, and the whole subject of 

 the feeding of young animals needs accurate scientific in- 

 vestigation. At the same time, w^e know enough to enable 

 us to deduce some useful hints and indications. 



Befbre ^weaning, milk usually forms the chief or only 

 fodder. For the first few days after birth it is espe- 

 cially important that the calf have the milk of its own 

 mother. The so-called colostrum (p. 416) has an essentially 

 different composition from the milk produced later, con- 

 taining far more dry matter and considerable albumin, 

 ■while the amounts of fat and sugar are relatively less ; the 

 nutritive ratio is narrower, and the digestibility ai)parently 

 greater. 



These differences nearly disappear in the course of a 

 week (sooner in cows yielding much milk than in those 

 yielding little), and after this it is a matter of indifference, 

 so far as the nutritive effect is concerned, whether the calf 

 be fed from its own mother or not. 



Hutritive Ratio. — That a milk diet is capable of sup])ly- 

 ing material for rapid grow^th is matter of common expe- 

 rience, and is illustrated by the experiments of the preced- 

 ing section. The comparatively narrow nutritive ratio of 

 good milk does not cause that waste of protein wliich it 

 would in mature animals, and the calf is thus enabled to 

 consume relatively large quantities of this most important 

 of all nutrients in a small bulk, and thus to supply the 

 body witii abundance of material for growth. 



It would seem from some experiments, however, that 



