100 Management of Aberdeen Angus Cattle. 
most marked. Bring an animal that has been prepared for the 
show-ring out of its box, and unless its particular wants have 
been supplied it will, if possible, get its head down to the ground 
and eat soil or even dirt from off the road. 
It is wise to follow the natural habits of animals as closely 
as may be under domestication. I therefore keep a large piece 
of rock-salt, and sometimes chalk also, in the racks, so that 
both old and young may lick it when they choose to do so. 
Sometimes I even go further than this, and have a grass sod, 
with a fair amount of soil attached to it, put into the manger — 
and it is surprising with what relish some animals will consume 
both sod and soil. 
Harking back to where we left the cows and their calves, the 
former, as soon as the weather is favourable and there is a pick- 
ing of grass to be got, should go out to the fields for a few hours 
each day, and about the beginning of May cows and calves may 
go out together, but for the earlier nights, or until the weather 
is something like settled and fine, they should be brought into 
the house at sunset. 
In the case of Aberdeen Angus cattle the bull and heifer 
calves must not be allowed to go together, as the precocity of 
the former keeps them always roaming about looking for work ; 
hence they become troublesome both to the cows and to the 
heifer calves. 
Cows with bull calves must be kept by themselves in fields 
separated from the cows with heifer calves. Should the dams of 
the bull calves begin to fail in their milk supply, which may 
happen towards the end of summer, it is well to give their 
calves a small allowance of cake per day. This is best done by 
placing the cake in some convenient place, the access to which 
is only just high enough to allow the calves to get in, but 
not the cows. 
Weaning. 
The weaning of the calves, except any odd late one, should 
take place in September. The heifer calves may be put all 
together in some large, well lighted and ventilated, covered 
fold ; the bull calves may be put in boxes or small folds (covered) 
in lots of two or three, depending upon the space available. 
The cows should be put in a field as far as possible removed 
from the calves. For three days and nights both the cows and 
the calves are very noisy and unsettled, but at the end of that 
time quietness is restored, and now is the time to commence 
breaking-in the calves. 
