456 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 29, 1390. 
X5ilf rearing. It is not our intention now to enter upon the 
question of breeding, and we at once turn to details of rearing 
calves which may assist our readers. New milk for a month, 
beginning with a gallon daily and gradually increasing the quantity 
till it is about doubled. For the next two or three months skim 
milk, thickened with 1 lb. of boiled linseed, linseed meal, or oat¬ 
meal twice daily ; a little sweet hay as soon as it can be taken ; 
then green food, such as Rye, followed by Trifolium, Tares, and 
Clover ; a little crushed Waterloo cake is also sometimes given, but 
■we prefer not to use much of this till slop feeding ends. Grazing 
with a run upon grass follows in due course, and is practised 
generally for the sake of economy. With a covered yard and cut 
green food going for other stock calves are often kept in altogether, 
and many excellent cattle owners consider that they are more 
'thrifty with such shelter than when exposed to worry from flies 
and sudden changes of weather. Whichever plan is followed a 
sufficiently liberal mixed dietary is all-important to afford full 
sustenance to them. Feeding should keep pace with growth, and 
be it remembered that the calf is remarkable for rapidity of growth 
under sound treatment. There must be no check, but rather a 
steadily progressive scale of feeding, aud the excessive use of rich 
forcing food is to be avoided. For early calves the new milk and 
the mixed skim milk and gruel should be used at a temperature of 
05° to 98°, which Professor Sheldon tells us is the temperature of 
milk as it comes from a cow’s udder. 
Any sudden change of diet is to be avoided, and it is for this 
reason that dry food is given before the milk is withheld altogether. 
Bran, crushed oats, meal, and AVaterloo cake are gradually added, 
and as milk is withheld more water is required. There is still a 
'lot of Mangold in hand from the fine crop of last year, and some 
of them passed through a mincer make a wholesome addition to 
other food. The first crop of Rye is in ear, and if it is used it 
must be cut into chaff, but there is plenty of other green food for 
■choice now. 
Much advertised condimental food should be used with caution 
A little of it mixed with the other food renders it more palatable ; 
by giving tone to the stomach it tends to keep off scour ; and as 
•a promoter of health it is valuable. For the sake of economy, as 
well as having a pure condiment, we give a recipe by Mr. Pringle 
-in his “ Live Stock of the Farm,” which can bo made at a cost 
of £12 lOs. per ton, or about one-fourth of the ordinary price :— 
cwts. qrs. lbs. 
..600 
..900 
..300 
0 0 40 
..0 0 40 
0 0 20 
0 0 27 
..003 
..004 
0 0 10 
0 0 10 
..002 
0 0 6 
..006 
0 0 30 
..004 
..0 0 22 
20 0 0 
This may be used with advantage for steers throughout the 
eighteen or twenty months of their existence, and also for pigs 
and sheep. It promotes a healthy condition in all animals, and is 
of especial value for helping on select beasts for the show yard. 
Shelter is of great assistance to feeding, and it is claimed by 
those who not only rear their calves in snug buildings, but never 
turn them out to graze,’ that they are fed at less cost, and are ripe 
for the butcher earlier than those which have two summers on 
pasture. We have heard it said recently by tenant farmers who 
were advised to rear more stock, “ It is all very well to give us such 
advice, but we have no suitable buildings, and it is useless to ask 
landlords to build now that rents have fallen so much.” Surely 
self-interest should engender a spirit of self help ! During the 
last few years we have been restoring many farm homesteads, but 
we have also seen with pleasure the tenants driving home cartloads 
of deal scantling from timber auction sales for contrivances of 
their own. Every wall, every blank side of a building, may be 
turned to account for building lean-to sheds against, only take care 
to have stout supports and the roof well tied together, and sides 
and ends may be made snug enough with Gorse, Heather, Sedges, 
rushes, faggots, or straw, and depend upon it the money thus ex¬ 
pended upon shelter will ha more than recouped by the speedy 
growth, lusty condition, and general well doing of the animals. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Bright warm weather in May such as we have had lately is a strong 
inducement to early sheep shearing, but the advice of the old saw Till 
May be out n’er cast a clout,” is as valuable for sheep as for human 
beings, and it is wrong to shear till we reach the safe haven of summer 
weather in June, for the cold nights of May try newly shorn sheep 
sorely. As we write this note in the early morning of the 23rd of May 
there is a strong east wind blowing, to which we should certainly not 
like to expose them. The only sheep we ever do clip in May are 
forward hoggets having the shelter of a walled yard and a commodious 
lodge. 
With such an abundance of feed there has been very little Rye 
reserved for a second folding, Lucerne and Sainfoin being both avail¬ 
able and nicely forward in growth. Rye Grass, too, is now sufficiently 
forward to be useful, and with the successional Tare crops and mixed 
seeds we have an ample supply of green food for every possible require¬ 
ment during the summer. These green crops enable us to reserve the 
whole of the permanent pasture for hay or silage, and there is now 
every appearance of an abundant hay crop. More than one of our 
neighbours complain of the thin growth and backward condition of 
their pasture, and we are bound to tell them if they will persist in 
turning out stock so late in spring, and in using no manure, they 
cannot have a full crop of hay. Our substitution of mixed Tares, Oats, 
and Rye Grass for ensilage instead of roots on the heavy land bids fair 
to prove entirely successful. The labour bill for hoeing and tillages is 
much reduced, the green crops are flourishing, and all doubts about 
ensilage have long been set at rest. We are thus able to report well of 
summer and winter prospects, and with lambs selling at 43s. per head, 
and other stock at equally profitable rates, the year should prove a 
better one for farmers than we have had at a'l since prices fell so low for 
corn. We must admit that we feared a similar permanent reduction in 
the price of meat when frozen foreign meat was first imported, but it 
has not, nor will it ever drive British meat out of the market. As an 
example we may instance a town of some ten or twelve thousand 
inhabitants some twelve miles distant from London. It has one small 
shop for imported meat, but none of it is to be found at any of the other 
butchers’ shops. 
METEOROLOGICAL 0 B S E R V.\.T 10 NS. 
CA.MDES SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitule, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN Tits DAT. 
1890. 
' O' fiJ 
Hygr ime- 
ter. 
a , 
o-a 
r a 
or" 
Iti 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
E.adiation 
Temperature. 
Rain 
May. 
^ p j 
Dry. 
Wet. 
aB 
S z'Z 
Ma.t. 
Min. 
lu 
SUll. 
On 
grass 
Pnnday . 
. J8 
Inches. 
29.741 
deg 
60.2 
deg. 
53.4 
E. 
deg. 
54.9 
deg. 
66.4 
deg. 
49.4 
deg. 
113.2 
deg, 
38.3 
oto27 
Monday .... 
Tuesday ... 
29.740 
62.1 
66.3 
N.Ht. 
5 4.2 
70.9 
4-3.« 
113.9 
8.5.9 
0.125) 
. 20 
29.004 
53.9 
48.9 
S.E. 
55.2 
60.3 
49.9 
91.4 
4.-.. 5 
— 
Wednesday, 
. 21 
30.14.5 
53.8 
51.4 
S. 
f3.7 
67.5 
46.2 
116.9 
C8.1 
— 
Thursday, 
. 
30.357 
60.0 
61.6 
N E. 
54.7 
70.9 
43.2 
115.0 
81.1 
— 
Friday . 
. 23 
30.220 
63.2 
54.2 
N.E. 
54.9 
72.9 
411.1 
116.1 
41.9 
— 
Saturday ... 
. 24 
30.4)52 
68.9 
60.1 
N.E. 
56.9 
77.4 
48.4 
91.2 
4.5.3 
— 
29.990 
Cl.O 
£3.7 
54.9 
t9.5 
46.7 
108.4 
39.9 
0,156 
REMARKS. 
18th.—Sho-wers early, cloudy morning, a little sunshine at midday; run from 3 to 4 P.M.' 
then cloudy again. 
10th.—Generally cloudy in morning; shower at oro pM, then generally bright t^ll 
evening. Ligntning from 10 to 11 PJI, and heavy ruin from 11.15 till m’.daight. 
20th.—Overcast and cool, with occasional slight showers in the morning; alternate 
sunshine and showers in afternoon. 
2l8t.—r.dght and mild, 
22nd.—Sun shining through haze of thin cloud in the morning ; bright afternoon, 
23rd.—Warm and almost cloudless. 
24tb.—Brilliant day; very warm, though not so sunny a 3 some of the earlier ones. 
It is rather curious that the temperature ha.4 risen with remarkable steadiness. Of 
course It is usual for the temperature to rise In the spring, but it usually does so 
irregularly, whereas for the past six weeks the rises have been S-', P5®, 2®, 2*2®, 3 4'», and 
1*5«. During this week easterly Winds hive been prevalent, and little rain has fallen.— 
Q. J. SYMONS. 
Locust beans, finely ground 
Indian corn „ „ 
Linseed cake „ „ 
Powdered turmeric ... 
Sulphur 
Saltpetre 
Liquorice 
Ground ginger 
Aniseed 
■Coriander 
Gentian 
Cream of tartar 
Carbonate of soda ... 
Levigated antimony ... 
Common salt ... 
Peruvian bark. 
Fenugreek . 
