The Management of a Shorthorn Herd. 
423 
cotton-cake, oats, and bran in tho following proportions, divided 
into four equal parts — Two of linseed-cake, one of cotton-cake, 
and one of crushed oats and bran. No hard-and-fast line is 
observed as to the quantity given to each animal. The bulls 
get more or less, according to size ; the heifers, as we have 
seen, only a little, as a sort of relish ; but the needs of each are 
carefully watched, and more or less food allowed accordingly. 
No milk is given to either bulls or heifers after they are weaned. 
At 5 o'clock every evening and 7 in the morning, women go 
round among the suckling cows and take any accumulated milk. 
While the majority of the cows are in full milk and their calves 
young, from 100 to 200 gallons of milk come into the house in 
the course of one month. The quantity, of course, diminishes 
as the calves require more and the cows yield less ; but this 
yield in excess of the calves' sustenance implies the existence 
of milk-productiveness, which might be largely cultivated by 
regular and frequent milking (say three times a-day) and 
restriction of the calves' access to their dams. 
The cows, with their calves, and the younger females, are 
generally turned out, night and day, before the 1st of April. 
This year, the spring being cold and backward, some were 
brought in at night until after that time. The autumn weather 
being usually open and mild, they are not taken in until late 
in November or early in December. 
In the winter the breeding cows get nothing but straw, 
turnips and water, until they calve, except for about a week 
before calving, when they get scalded bran. Soon after calving, 
their warm bran mashes are discontinued, and they have hay, 
turnips, and bran wetted with cold water. If, as is some- 
times the case, a calving cow has become on this ordinary keep 
very fat, a little linseed-oil is given to her on pulped turnips. 
As a rule, very little, if any, medicine is given. Regulation of 
the system by the diet is preferred to physic. No cake is given 
to breeding cows, but if, as is not usual, a yearling heifer hap- 
pens to be in-calf, she has, if she seems to need it, a little oil- 
cake to keep up her strength and condition. In the ordinary- 
way, the heifers live their second winter on straw and turnips. 
It is noticed, however, at Ardfert (contrary to most English 
experience) that yearling heifers are shy of breeding, that about 
one-half of those which have the chance do not prove in-calf, 
and nearly all the remainder take a year's holiday after the first 
calf. It is only, indeed, in the case of yearlings that have bred 
{i.e. become mothers when about two years old) that any diffi- 
culty as to breeding is found. The suckling cows breed again 
regularly, as a rule within the year, although those which have 
heifer-calves are accompanied by their calves night and day. 
