414 
Tlie Management of a Shorthorn Herd. 
calf, in which it is kept, having the mother's companionship, 
though not unrestricted access to her, for the first fortnight. From 
that time the calf has a pen in some other house, sometimes in a 
box to itself, but oftener a compartment in a house with other 
calves, and is taken to the mother twice in the day, morning and 
evening. If the mother is a deep milker, the herdsman takes from 
her as much milk as he finds she can spare, leaving plenty for the 
calf, which then comes in and clears the udder, so that the calf gets 
the richer " strippings," but does not satiate itself by taking too 
much after a day's (or a night's) fasting. Some cows give a 
considerable quantity of milk at each end of the day, besides 
keeping their calves well ; others only rear their calves. One 
cow, Mr. Aylmer assured me, yields when in full milk two 
gallons (eight imperial quarts) morning and evening, i.e. sixteen 
quarts in the day, before suckling her calf, which is always fat 
when weaned. There is no inflexible rule, but usually the calf, 
if a heifer, is suckled about six months ; if a bull, sometimes 
rather longer. As soon as the calf can be enticed to eat a little 
dry food, it has in its manger a mixture of crushed pats, oilcake, 
and ground maize (these ingredients varied in proportion, and 
one or more omitted, so as to tempt the appetite), and sometimes 
a little cut cabbage or tares with the dry food ; but it does not do 
much more than flirt with the manger until it reaches the age 
of six or seven weeks, when it begins to eat in earnest, and by 
the time it should be weaned it is pretty well past the necessity 
of having milk, so that there is no checking of growth or loss 
of flesh after weaning. The quantity of milk, too, can be regu- 
lated by the quantity taken from the cow before the calf is turned 
in with her, and the calf is thus by easy transition relieved of 
dependence upon its mother. Indeed some calves, particularly 
bulls, are gradually reduced to so small a proportion of nourish- 
meat from the dam, that they grow and thrive faster after they 
are weaned. For a calf a little out of order in health, or not 
thriving quite so well as it might do, a raw egg, occasionally, 
beaten up, shell and all, is found a wholesome addition to its 
diet. I have seen this used elsewhere, and have myself used it for 
calves (omitting the shell) with very good effect. The weaned 
calves and all the stock indoors have water plentifully supplied, 
but not laid on before them in their boxes. It is laid on to 
tubs in the yard, and thence drawn and carried to the animals 
as required. 
Formerly Mr. Aylmer had all his cows hand-milked and the 
calves brought up by bucket, and the system answered very well. 
It was changed to the suckling system, not from any faults in 
the hand-milking and pail-feeding system itself, but on account 
of the difiiculty of finding men who are equally good milkers. 
