DAIRY FARMING. 
457 
which have been pampered, but they also turn out to be far 
more useful, being really serviceable animals for the purpose 
for which they are wanted, and their progeny healthy and 
thriving. To sum up this part of a very important and 
interesting subject, we consider that a better foundation, or 
starting point, for profitable dairy farming can scarcely be 
attained than that which begins with the Ayrshire cow and 
Shorthorn bull. In uplands, where the pasture is but in- 
different, and situation exposed and unsheltered, the Short- 
horn is then inadmissible, the pure Ayrshire giving more 
profitable results. 
Treatment of the Calf . — A considerable expenditure of time, 
trouble, and money having been gone to in procuring good 
blood, the offspring becomes valuable before it has seen the 
light ; and it therefore becomes well worth while to bestow 
much care on the cows during the months of gestation, 
removing as much as possible all disturbing influences, so 
that the calf may come to the vrorld healthy and full-timed. 
When the breed is valuable, much loss is too frequently expe- 
rienced from premature births, as from whatever cause it 
begins in the herd, it seldom ceases without a considerable 
number of the cows slinking, there being an apparent, though 
hitherto unexplained sympathy amongst a number of breed- 
ing cows, the conditions of whose daily life is exactly similar. 
Regularity of feeding, good ventilation, and abundant room, 
not only in the stalls, but in the width of the doors, so that 
there need be no crushing as they go in and out, are all 
excellent preventives of abortion. Musty hay or straw, more 
particularly barley-straw in almost any condition, given as 
food to in-calf cows, is provocative of slinking, and should be 
avoided, as also the giving of a quantity of cold roots as the 
first feed in the morning (frosted turnips are particularly 
objectionable), a little sweet hay or fresh oaten straw being 
safest for the morning feed, and accidents less likely to occur 
by such an arrangement. The calf having been brought into 
the world healthy, the great aim should be to keep it so, and 
this can in general be successfully done by providing it with 
comfortable quarters, and feeding moderately at regular inter- 
vals. When the disposal of dairy produce is more the object 
than stock-rearing, the latter being subordinate to the former, 
and the calf consequently intended to be brought up by 
hand, it should, to save trouble, be removed from the mother 
the moment she has licked it dry. It should not be per- 
mitted to suck even once, and the instincts of mother and 
offspring never having been aroused, they have no knowledge 
of each other, and much annoyance is thereby avoided. 
