150 
Rearing of Calves. 
calf to begin to cliew the cud in ten days, when the muzzle may 
be removed. 
Much injury has been caused to calves housed together, from 
sucking each other, as they frequently take hold of the navel- 
string, a part of great delicacy in a newly-dropped calf. 
Tlie passage of the urine is also very important. I have seen 
calves appearing heavy and dull, lying down and panting, and 
to an observing eye evidently " wrong." The herdsman satisfies 
himself that the bowels are regular, but he cannot be so sure of 
the urine. I have observed him get the calf up, stand immedi- 
ately behind it, and rub its sides vigorously with both hands at 
the same time, then gently manipulate the sheath, when pre- 
sently the water flows copiously, and the animal is at once 
relieved. Now here are cases which perhaps, were they neg- 
lected, might become formidable and require the drenches of 
the cow-leech, and they are combated most successfully by the 
simplest means. 
It is important that the calf should be fed from the milk of 
the same cow daily ; a very little attention will ensure this, if the 
cows are milked and the calves fed in the same order. Any 
sudden change of food is injurious, as the least sourness in the 
stomach causes " scour " — one of the worst evils calves are liable 
to. On first observing it, a diminution in the quantitv of milk 
may check the disease, which not unfrequently arises from the 
stomach being overtaxed. 
In rearing calves our object must be to combine efficiency 
with economy, and to realise profit from the dairy without rob- 
bing or stinting the calf. We follow nature for a while, but are 
forced into another course ere long. We begin with pure 
" mother's milk," but in a fortnight a change must come. Milk 
is too valuable to be continued in its pure and neat condition, 
and a slight, very slight, change is introduced, consisting in the 
substitution of oil-cake gruel for a portion of the milk. This 
gruel is prepared in the following proportion, — one quart of 
cake (ground fine) to four of water. This pulverised cake is put 
into a bucket, and the water, boiling, poured on it. It is allowed 
to stand about eight hours, being occasionally stirred. My prac- 
tice is to begin, when the calf is about a fortnight old, to add a 
very little of the gruel to the milk, and to increase the quantity 
by slow degrees, with a decreasing allowance of milk, until at 
weaning time the former has gradually taken the place of the 
latter. But when a large quantity of gruel is given, its potency 
must be lessened to guard against purging ; and it will be 
desirable to add to every two quarts of the gruel as above men- 
tioned one quart of water. 
