1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
7o3 
THE WINTER CALF. 
I have seen many a Winter calf which 
at once excited my sympathy. Tied by 
a short rope to a post on the bam floor, 
or more commonly in one corner of it, 
under foot a mass of nasty straw, there 
it stands, shivering in the breeze which 
comes through the cracks in the siding; 
back humped up, tail hugged down, ut¬ 
ter wretchedness depicted in every fea¬ 
ture. Twice daily it is given a mess of 
milk which is usually either too hot or 
too cold, and in quantity either too 
much or not enough. Surely that calf 
will be glad to see Spring come—for it 
rarely dies after all. What a delight to 
be free, to kick up its heels in the warm 
air, and to nip the tender blades of 
grass; that is, what few there are be¬ 
tween the burdocks and Mayweeds with 
which the average calf pasture is thick¬ 
ly strewn. 
The Winter calf needs a box stall, or 
a place where he may be allowed hie 
liberty, and room to turn around and 
kick up his heels and play. It should be 
warm and dry. Building paper will 
make a stable warm very cheaply. 
Straw is plentiful this year, so let that 
calf pen be well littered, and cleaned 
out frequently. Did you ever notice 
how the little things play and kick up 
when you put in fresh bedding for them? 
They enjoy it, and tell you as plainly 
as they can how thankful they are for 
it. A pig will do the same thing. Just 
carry in a forkful of nice, clean straw, 
and see what a lot of monkey shines 
they will cut up! 
The young calf needs to be fed care¬ 
fully, or it will not be thrifty. Overfeed¬ 
ing with milk will ruin it as quickly as 
underfeeding. The milk should be al¬ 
ways of the proper temperature, not so 
hot as to burn the mouth when the 
eager little fellow dips his nose into it. 
In quantity no rule can be laid down, 
but it is better to err on the side of too 
little than too much during the first few 
weeks. A successful feeder has said 
that he keeps watch of the calf’s sides 
as it drinks, and when they are just 
flush with the hip the milk is withheld. 
Overfeeding causes indigestion, and this 
more easily with some calves than with 
others. The dainty little Jersey cannot 
stand the ration which would be none 
too much for the sturdy Durham. If 
the bowels become loose it is an indi¬ 
cation of too liberal a milk ration. Cut 
this down and give three raw eggs twice 
a day. These are strengthening and 
healing to the inflamed bowels, and are 
cheaper than drugs, besides being al¬ 
ways at hand. We have cured scours 
in calves with eggs when disease had 
resisted every other known remedy. 
Just break the shell, hold up the calf’s 
head and down it goes. They soon learn 
to like it. 
When the calf is two weeks old it will 
begin to eat hay, and a little should be 
placed within reach. Turn it over every 
day, BO the fresh spears will be outside, 
or give it to an older animal and put 
fresh in its place. After a few weeks 
finely-cut corn fodder will be eaten to 
quite an extent. Our calves had no hay 
last Winter. They seem to like the cut 
feed, and it is far cheai)er and more 
plentiful than hay. In feeding calves 
we find a little grain beneflcial. Bran 
comes into use here, as the best we can 
give. Formerly it was fed in the milk, 
but now we feed it dry, and prefer the 
latter method. The milk is fed first 
in the morning; then we go around with 
a bushel basket of the cut fodder, and 
give them their ration of this for the 
day. The pails from which tne milk 
is drank are cleaned out by this time, 
and a handful of bran and ground oats 
is dropped into each. They get no grain 
at night. This ration varies with the 
age of the calf, but it is measured out 
only by the hand. We aim to get big 
paunches on our heifer calves, and en¬ 
courage them to eat all the roughage 
possible. 
Under the conditions named, warm. 
dry quarters, sunshine when possible, 
just enough milk at the right tempera¬ 
ture, hay or cut corn fodder to pick at, 
and a little bran or ground oats, you 
may have a better calf out of the one 
dropped in Fall or Winter than the one 
dropped in Spring or Summer. In rais¬ 
ing calves the same as with any young 
stock, the point is to furnish enough 
suitable food to keep them growing 
thriftily. In addition to this they must 
be kept warm and dry. Damp, foul 
stables are a menace to the health of 
any animal, but most of all to those 
which are young. w. c. n. 
Michigan. 
Acorns as Food for Pigs. 
A man in Connecticut wishes to know 
about feeding acorns to pigs. He has 
been told that too many acorns will' in¬ 
jure his hogs, and that this food will 
make pork soft and oily. At Tuskegee 
Institute, Alabama, a large number of 
pigs were fed on acorns, and with suc¬ 
cess. In reporting on this feeding in 
the first bulletin from the Institute, 
Prof. Carver says that it is desirable to 
give some laxative along with the 
acorns, as they have a very constipating 
effect, and so injure the pigs where fed 
in large quantity. Roots or any green 
feed will act as a laxative. They also 
found that acorns produced a soft, 
spongy flesh, with an oily-like lard, that 
hardened with great difficulty, and fre¬ 
quently not at all. This, however, was 
readily overcome by feeding corn for two 
or three weeks before butchering, which 
resulted in the hardening of the flesh. 
Many people in the South, it is said, 
sell pigs that have been largely fed on 
acorns, and that are not finished off on 
corn. The policy, however, is not a 
good one. c. s. pluacb. 
Breeding Hornless Cattle. 
Prof. C. S. Plumb some time ago criti¬ 
cised my statement in regard to crossing 
cattle with a little Polled Angus blood, and 
said that he could see no possible benefit 
to come from such breeding. I would like 
to ask him whether he thinks there is no 
advantage in having the horns bred off? I 
failed to specify this in particular, and also 
that I added possibly hardihood. These 
benefits only I claim. J. l,. b. 
Palls, W, Va. 
I do consider it an advantage to have 
hornless cattle. This has been so fully 
demonstraited in western feed lots that 
now large numbers of cattle come into 
Chicago market from which the horns 
have been removed at some time, or from 
which they iiave been bred off in this 
or some other generation. Such horn¬ 
less cattle inflict much less injury on 
their mates than do horned ones, and a 
larger number may be fed together. 
than of horned stock. It is not neces¬ 
sary to use a hornless male to secure 
hornless cattle, because the horns on 
young calves can be easily destroyed by 
applying a little caustic potash to them 
when in the immature stage. To be 
sure a mulley bull will accomplish the 
result just as well and with less trouble. 
In this respect the use of an Angus bull 
might be justiflable. 
My original discussion in 'The R. N.- 
Y. was on the crossing of Short-horns 
and Aberdeen, Angus, using the latter 
for the sire. These two breeds repre¬ 
sent our very best beef types. The 
average Angus is perhaps more hardy 
than the average Short-horn, but it will 
not be diflicult to secure plenty of Short¬ 
horns equally hardy with the Angus. I 
still adhere to my original proposition, 
that it is not desirable to cross these 
breeds as breeds. If one wish the mulley 
type, and of a hardy class, then select 
the straight Angus, or a mulley Short¬ 
horn. And if one is to keep only grade 
Short-horns, then I should advise the 
use of a hornless, purebred Short-horn 
bull, with a rib, skin and heart-girth 
that would guarantee a hardy constitu¬ 
tion. Such a bull would produce no vio¬ 
lent cross, should improve the type, and 
give more uniform offspring than the 
direct cross. c. s. plumb. 
Bumble Foot on Fowls. 
What is the disease that has got into 
my flock of chickens? The foot swells 
badly on the bottom. In the center of 
this swelling is a round hard scab. When 
I take this off and probe the sore a gp'eat 
amount of thick blood comes out. The 
same thing comes on the joints, but I cut 
these right off and they got well. Is it a 
bad case of scaly legs? What can I do 
to cure It? j. m’l. 
Romeo. Mich. 
The trouble with these chickens Is 
surely bumble foot, although it seldom 
affects but a few in a flock, and I think 
comes from bruised feet. 'The only cure 
is to open and wash out with some anti¬ 
septic. J. E. s. 
The fattest cattle at the Pan-American 
are the Polled Durhams owned by J. H. 
Miller, of Peru, Ind. Several of these 
weigh a ton each and they are as fat as 
butter. 
The largest bull at the Pan-American is 
a Short-horn that weighs 2,760 pounds. The 
smallest full-grown animal Is a French- 
Canadian cow and she weighs less than 400. 
Between these extremes are all sizes, but 
only one quality, and that Is the best and 
most valuable that the continent affords. 
Cream Separators. 
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^ SPAVIN 
Ringbone, Splint or Curb wdll reduce the sell¬ 
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Dayton, Texas, Sept. 22nd, 1900, 
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