Hie Farming of Cheshire. 
75 
the period before referred to, very few turnips or other succulent 
roots were grown, and the yearling calves had seldom anything 
given to them except a little hav ; occasionally a small field of old 
grass v\as reserved for them, and the second winter tliey were fed 
entirelv on straw : this method of treating young cattle is too 
much practised even at the present day, but many farmers have 
recenilv adopted an improved mode of feeding — when very young, 
before going out to grass, the calves are taught to eat sliced tur- 
nips, raangold-wurzel, or carrots mixed with crushed oats; they 
are taken up at ni^ht about the latter end of October or early in 
November, and have hav, and as soon as their pasture becomes 
short, sliced turnips or mangold-wurzel, and a lew crushed oats 
are given ; thev are generally turned out lo some early grass in 
April. Some few farmers, who make a point of rearing their first- 
dropped calves in February and March, allow their heifers to 
coine into profit when little more than two }oars old, about the 
middle of Mav; but when this is the case they are kept very well 
the second winter, having hav, turnips, and a little corn, and they 
are put into a good pasture early in the spring : generally speak- 
ing, heifers do not come into profit before they are three years 
old. The number of calves reared on a dairy farm is in the pro- 
portion of 5 to every '20 cows, taking care to select those from the 
best milkers. But it is too much the practice with many farmers to 
feed all their ^Vj?^ calves indiscriminately for the butcher, with the 
view of selling them while veal is fetching a good price, and to 
take their chance as to what may hereafter come for rearing. This 
management frequently ends in disappointment, and late rearings 
seldom or ever grow up such fine cattle as early ones — i. e. when 
after a certain period they are all treated alike, as is the case in 
Cheshire. 
The food for the calves* is prepared in the following manner : 
about half a pound of meal for each calf is put into a tub, scalding 
water or whey is poured upon it, and well stirred, skimmed-milk 
and fleetings are then added ; about four quarts are given to each 
calf twice a-day, until ^lidsummer, when they are gradually 
weaned. 
It may perhaps not be out of place to state here that the pre- 
vailing epidemic among cattle has proved a great drawback upon 
the resources of the dairy farmers. In some instances as many as 
twenty and thirty, and even sixty cows have died on one farm from 
this destructive disease. Where this has been the case, the places 
of the dead cattle have been cautiously supplied by fresh stock, 
from fear of further losses ; farmers preferring to increase the 
* A recipe for disordered bowels in young calves: — 2 drms. rhubarb, 
2 oz. castor oil, i drm. ginger, mixed with a little warm milk or gruel. 
The dose may be repeated in a day or two, if required. 
