5 ] 4 
REARING OF CATTLE. 
hours. In the mean time, the teats of the cow are 
stripped by the hand, in order to discharge the first milk, 
which is reckoned to be unwholesome. The calf is then intro¬ 
duced and sucks a moderate quantity, and is again returned 
to its apartment. The sucking is performed thrice a-day, at 
six o’clock in the morning, at noon, and at six in the evening. 
The cow-house and the calf-pens are adjoining, and afford 
convenience by that position. The calf is led by a rope or 
halter on the head, and when it is sucking, the end of the 
rope is slung longitudinally for that purpose behind the cow. 
Two calves suck one cow, and are placed one on each side. 
So soon as the calf is able to masticate, bruised oil¬ 
cake is placed in a box in a corner of the apartment, 
which food the animal very soon learns to chew, and 
it has a very nourishing effect. Another box contains 
a lump of chalk, which the animal licks, and it is found to 
be very useful in correcting the crude acidities of the 
stomach. A rack is placed on the subdivision of the apart¬ 
ments, and in it are placed clover and vetches, which the 
animal soon learns to eat. One rack thus serves two calves. 
The calf continues to be fed and sucked in this manner 
for three months at least, when it will be grown strong and 
fit to be removed to an adjoining grass paddock, which must 
be rich in pasture, well sheltered, and provided with a regular 
and ample supply of fresh water, and a roomy shelter-shed. 
An orchard suits well for this purpose, the shade of the trees 
is grateful and the grass is tender for the young animals 
under the shade of the trees. At the end of sixteen weeks the 
milk is gradually withdrawn, and if the grass in the paddock 
be scanty, cut clovers and vetches must be given daily in 
racks, and in a fresh state. The shelter-shed must be well 
littered and kept dry. 
Sucking the dam is very much preferable to giving the 
milk to the calves by hand from the pail; for by exposure 
the volatile gases of the milk escape; and in the process of 
sucking a quantity of saliva is engendered, which is necessary 
for the proper digestion of the milk, and for the secretion of 
nutritious juices. The appearance of the animal at once 
shows the great difference of the two ways of rearing; the 
suckled calf being ever sleek in the coat, light in the offal, 
and of thriving and animated appearance. The animal that 
is fed by hand is heavy in the paunch, slower in growth, 
and of a generally more unthrifty appearance. 
By the month of July the earliest calves will be able to be 
removed from the weaning paddock to the pasture field, which 
must be rich and well sheltered and watered. They remain 
