450 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ May SO, 188a 
calves are lost through ignorance of the proper course of treatment by 
those having the care of them. A common mistake is to take the 
calf from the cow a day or two after the calving. As a general 
rule it should always remain with the cow for at least a week, and 
have as much of its milk as it can take. To place it with another 
cow does not answer, because the milk of the cow that has just 
calved contains a laxative substance specially provided to cleanse 
the calf’s bowels and promote digestion. The calf is thus enabled 
to discharge the glutinous matter which had accumulated in 
the intestines before birth, and to acquire a healthy and regular 
action of the bowels. A calf deprived of the first milk of 
the cow usually suffers from constipation ; recourse is then had to 
castor oil, which tends to cause excessive scour, which frequently 
proves fatal. When the use of castor oil is found to be unavoid¬ 
able it should be given in doses of 2 ozs. in gruel, containing 
a scruple of powdered ginger. See that the calf sucks some 
milk soon after the birth, and only take sufficient milk away by 
ihand to relieve the udder for the first day or two, afterwards 
taking all that can be spared after the calf sucks, which it 
should do only three times daily, being shut off from the cow 
at other times. If this precaution is not taken, and it is 
suffered to overload its stomach, its digestive powers may not be 
sufficiently strong for the demands made upon them, and the 
mass of hardened curd which accumulates in the stomach causes 
death. 
Taken from the cow when a week old the calf should have 
about three pints of new milk three times daily for the next three 
weeks, and then for the next three months three quarts of skim 
milk slightly thickened with finely crushed Waterloo cake, with a 
little common salt added twice weekly. Early calves should have 
some hay, chaff, and minced roots at mid-day, for which green food 
should be substituted later on. Keep them entirely under shelter 
till the weather becomes warm and settled, when they may be let 
out on pasture by day; but it is as well that they should have 
shelter by night, and to go to at will by day. The best way to 
■ensure this is a snug lodge, opening into a little yard and paddock. 
Let the lodge or hovel be sufficiently commodious to afford 
thorough shelter, and the doorway or opening into it wide enough 
to admit two or three calves at once, in order to avoid injury to 
the animals when driven in by flies. 
Young stock of all kinds answer best when kept in a healthy 
progressive state, and when they are turned out to grass they may 
continue having about half a pound of the Waterloo cake daily with 
enough common salt to flavour it twice weekly. As autumn comes 
on and pastures become bare the quantity of cake may be doubled 
and gradually increased to 2 lbs., with some good meadow hay. 
When shut in the yard for the winter mixed chaff of hay and 
Barley or Oat straw with about a peck of sliced Swedes, or its 
equivalent in well made silage, will with the cake keep them in 
condition, and so they are brought round to the second time of 
turning out on pasture. During all this time especial care must be 
taken to keep the young stock clean and comfortable in yard and 
lodge, for there can be no doubt that such care is highly conducive 
to health. 
All our care with young stock will be to very little purpose 
without careful breeding. Calf-rearing on the home farm should 
be primarily for dairy stock, and we certainly cannot agree with a 
certain high authority that it is best to keep to local breeds for all 
purposes, because they are, so to speak, acclimatised to the locality. 
Take for example the Sussex. There can be no doubt that the 
breed is equal to any for beef, and it might by careful selection be 
rendered equally valuable for the dairy, but it is not so, and we 
have seen excellent herds of Channel Island cows, both Jerseys and 
“Guernseys, as well as Kerrys, in that county. A favourite cross¬ 
breed is that of Guernseys and Shorthorns, and it is often recom¬ 
mended. But when Mr. Henry Simmons of Bearwood Farm, 
Wokingham, read his paper on the breeding and selection of dairy 
stock at the Dairy Conference at Sandringham last year he told us 
of a famous cow, a cross between a Jersey and Shorthorn. This 
cow was a prizewinner at several shows, and her progeny by a 
pedigree Shorthorn bull—three cow calves in succession—all proved 
prizewinners, all proving very heavy milkers of good quality. He 
called especial attention to the fact of these calves all combining in 
a remarkable manner their sire’s immense frame and substance, 
while still retaining the dam’s milking powers. He said—and said 
rightly—that this was the class of animal most likely to pay the 
owner for her keep and leave something towards paying the rent, 
one that would do good work in the dairy and make beef after¬ 
wards. This is what we all require, and we certainly cannot obtain 
by keeping strictly to pure bred delicate Jerseys, which, however 
excellent their milk, are just so many milking machines—a costly 
fancy useful for no other purpose. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Warm showery weather has made weeds so rampant that much foul 
corn land is unavoidable, especially where Clover and other small seeds 
have been sown with corn. Thistles and Docks may be dealt with even 
then, but Coltsfoot and Charlock can hardly be got rid of without 
serious damage to the legitimate crops. To eradicate Charlock is un¬ 
doubtedly the most arduous undertaking a farmer has in his contest 
with the pests which infest his land. Once get it thoroughly established 
in the land, and though only an annual it laughs a long fallow to scorn, 
for its seeds permeate the soil, a fresh crop of it springing up every 
time it is stirred, and among the plant of winter corn sown after the 
fallow plenty of Charlock will make its appearance. The manner in 
which this pest has spread far and wide over the land is a disgrace to 
the British farmer, and his attempts to destroy it have cost him thou¬ 
sands of pounds. 
Swedes sown on the flat after Rye were visible along the rows on the 
eighth day from the time of sowing, and there will be little, if any, 
cessation between the hoeing of Mangolds and Swedes. The root horse 
hoes were at work between the Mangold rows soon after the plant was 
well above the surface, and side hoeing by hand followed at once. The 
next process is chopping out and singling, and there is a third process 
of hand-hoeing on each side of the rows and among the plant in the 
row, the horse hoe being used repeatedly as well. We are thus able to 
obtain a valuable crop of roots, and to get the land so clean that there 
ought to be very little trouble with weeds among the next crop, which 
is usually Barley. 
Wheat is generally a full plant, hut there are degrees of vigour 
perceptible in the growth according to the condition of the soil. On a 
heavy land fallow of last year part was sown with Mustard which was 
subsequently folded with sheep, and part was so foul that it had to be 
made a long fallow, and then had a heavy dressing of farmyard manure. 
The whole field was in due course sown with Wheat, and now the 
plant after Mustard is much the most vigorous, and the land much 
cleaner than the other. No doubt the seeds of many weeds are taken 
on the land in the muck, but cleanliness and economy are both so 
clearly on the side of the Mustard and sheep folds that the fact is 
worthy of especial notice. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 39'40" N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 foot. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
S_s 
Hygrome- 
a . 
O-.* 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
a 
1889. 
B a »j ® 
pa £ 
ter. 
V a 
§•=8 
perature. 
Temperature. 
| 
May. 
In 
O D 
03 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5o 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Iu. 
Sunday . 
29.032 
57.7 
55 0 
s.w. 
54 0 
60.7 
481 
76.3 
44 2 
0.140 
Monday. 
30.056 
55.4 
53.9 
N. 
53.8 
67.2 
51.7 
111.9 
523 
_ 
Tuesday ... 
21 
30.111 
61.3 
55.3 
N. 
54 2 
70.1 
49.3 
112.7 
45.1 
_ 
Wednesday. 
. 2! 
30.019 
67.0 
60.1 
:n.e. 
5».l 
79.9 
49.2 
119.7 
45.8 
_ 
Thursday... 
2:3 
29.856 
64.6 
60.9 
N.E. 
57-3 
80.8 
53.7 
117.7 
50.3 
00)10 
Friday . 
29.653 
65 3 
61.2 
.N.E. 
57.8 
81.2 
53.9 
125.9 
50.0 
Saturday ... 
. 2b 
29.540 
64.4 
61.2 
s. 
59.0 
73.4 
59.7 
117.2 
54.2 
0.338 
29 881 
G2.5 
58 2 
55.9 
73 3 
52.2 
111.6 
48.8 
0.488 
REMARKS. 
19th.—Rain in small hours; overcast morning, wet afternoon, damp evening. 
20th.—Dull early; line bright day. 
21st.—Bright sunshiny morning, brilliant day, and fine night. 
22nd.—A lovely summer day. 
23rd.—Warm, very hazy, and rather close; spots of rain at 1 P.M., then brighter; frequent 
distant thunder 3.30 to 5 P.M., lightning from 4.45 to 4.53; rain from 5 PM. to 
6.30 r.M.; dnll evening. 
24th.—Warm, hazy, and occasionally cloudy in morning; bright hot afternoon. 
25th.—Fine, but frequently cloudy, especially in morning; slight shower at 8 P.M. 
A fine warm week, with sharp thunderstorm in afternoon of 23rd at about two miles 
distance. This storm was accomp inied by heavy rain in parts of N. and E. London, but 
scarcely any fell here.—Q. J. SYMONS. 
