146 
Rearing of Calves. 
sucli a list. You have tlicn, among other advantages, the oppor- 
tunity of seeing which cow's calves are, or are not, worth keeping 
in the ensuing- season. You know the exact age, the sire and 
dam, and other particulars, which are as important to the owner, 
as the entries of Mr. Strafford are to the higher breeders of pure 
stock. 
Stoneleigh Abbey Farm, Kenilworth. 
VIII. — On the Rearing of Calves. By Major S. McClintock. 
These observations are offered to advocate the abandonment of 
the old system of rearing calves, for one which shall insure a 
quicker return, and therefore greater profit to the farmer — a 
change which the condition of our stock and meat markets, the 
state of our root-crops, the rising prices of dairy produce, and 
the sounder views of economy now prevailing, unite in en- 
forcing. 
Let us first cast a glance at what may be called the " old 
system," or that according to which calves are kept on as little 
as will maintain them alive, turned out by day in all weathers, 
indifferently housed, at night, receiving a scanty supply of milk, 
and that perhaps skimmed, so that to the pasture the calf must 
then look for Ibod all the day — the half of which is spent by the 
unfortunate and neglected animal standing gazing and shivering 
at a gate, in anxious expectation of the herdsman to drive him 
to his hovel. What is the appearance of this animal ? Do 
not his lean, ridgy back, his bare points, staring coat, and dis- 
tended belly, show his pitiable condition? And whence this 
last feature ? When the calf, with a keen appetite, leaves the 
hovel, supposing he has the benefit of such cover, and proceeds 
to " l)low himself out " with grass, like a half-starved Caffre 
revelling on the carcase of an eland, the result will in either case 
be a distended abdomen, showing clearly the imprudence of 
" the large and seldom " mode of feeding as compared with that 
of little and often. 
The calf, of all the animals on which the farmer is dependent, 
certainly fares the worst, and to him " fair play " is too often 
unknown. Yet, however great the value of milk may be to man 
for other objects, it must surely be unwise to rob the calf as 
much as is frequently done ; let him not be denied pure good 
milk for a time, and only as he gains strength let other food be 
substituted. 
As soon as the calf is dropped nature prompts the cow to 
