503 
HUSBANDRY. 
Free chalk may be made ufe of for this purpofe, as well 
as for correcting the fuperabundant acidities in the fto- 
jnach, and leffening the tendency to fcour. The idea of 
its giving to the fle'fh a delicate whiten'efs, ,is fuppofed by 
l'ome not to be well founded; there is however very little 
doubt that the contrary is the faff. Sait fprinkled in the 
troughs likewife a<?cs as a fiimulus to the appetite. Befides 
filiefe, it is a common practice with many good fucklers to 
give their calves balls composed of flour; pounded chalk, 
and milk, with the addition of a finall quantity of com¬ 
mon gin, and fometimes a little tinfiure of opium. Of 
thefe balls they give two, about the fi-ze of a walnut, once 
a-day, or oftener, to each calf. Such balls,, being very 
nutritious, in fome degree fupply the place of milk, and 
at the fame time, from the great ftimulus which they af¬ 
ford to the young animals, difpofe them to fleep, and 
thereby increafe their difpoiition to fatten ; but, where 
milk can be had In fufficient abundance, it is never worth 
while to have recourfe to thefe aids. When the demands 
of the calves, however, are beyond the powers of the cows, 
thel’e balls come feafonably to their relief. Occafional 
Bleedings have alio been advifed, to prevent loathing the 
food, and difeafes from plethora. 
In this fyltem of management it is conftantly necelfary 
to be buying in calves at a week or ten days old, or as 
they can be procured. The prices vary, according to the 
goodnefs, and the time of year at which they are bought 
in. The calves that are luckled by their own mothers 
are in general found to fatten in a (hotter time than thofe 
which are afterwards bought in to fupply their places; 
the reafon of which is, probably, their not having been 
removed from the place where they were firft dropped, and 
having always continued to fuck the milk molt natural to 
them ; which mud be fuppofed more nutritious,' and to 
agree better with them, than that of any other cow. Be- 
■fides, from the cows having recently calved, the milk nou- 
riflies and fattens in a higher degree than when they be¬ 
come itale-milched. Cow-calves are obferved to fatten 
more kindly than the male or bull-calves ; and thefe laft 
are more coarfe grained, and their flelh lefs delicate in tafte, 
than the former. In fome diftrifts, barley-meal and lin- 
feed boiled into a kind of jelly, and fuch-like materials, 
are fometimes given to calves in the courfe of fattening ; 
hut the methods recommended above are greatly fuperior, 
■though they may be more expenfive. 
It is found by experience that the veal of calves when 
killed at fix weeks or two months old is leldom of fo good 
a colour, or fo rich in flavour, as where the animal is fuf- 
fered to live a few w.eeks longer. To attain both thefe 
definable ends of colour and flavour, it is fuppofed necel¬ 
fary that the calves fliould be maintained with plenty of 
milk, and regulated under fuch management as before di¬ 
rected, till they arrive to the age of eight or ten weeks, 
according to the feafon of the year, the more or lefs kind¬ 
ly Hate of the calf, the particular demand of the markets, 
or other circumftances. In the fumtner feafon it may be 
proper to difpofe of them at an earlier period than in the 
winter; not only on account of their growing away with 
greater celerity in warm weather, but likewile becaufe of 
the increafed demand for fmall veal, which is then molt 
ialeable. During the laft three or four weeks, blood 
Ihould frequently be drawn from the calf, which, it is 
fuppoled, will be a likely means towards rendering the 
veal of a colour delicately white; a circumftance lb much 
attended to by the butcher, that he will commonly depre¬ 
ciate fuch calves as from the appearance of their eyes are 
likely to die black, as they term it, though in other re- 
fpefts not to be defpiled. 
Mr. Marlhall is decidedly of Opinion, in his Courfe of 
Hulbandry, that to fuckle calves in general after they are 
ten weeks old is bad management; as, from.the whole of 
• his accounts, thofe of nine or ten have paid as much a- 
week as thofe of twelve or thirteen ; and, although a calf 
of fix weeks old may luck nearly as much milk as a calf 
©f twelve weeks ojd, yet the firft; month or five weeks the 
quantity is confiderably lefs, and this advantage of their 
infancy is doubly as valuable to nine as it is to twelve 
weeks. The advantage of this practice is certainly very 
confiderable when conducted upon a large fcale. 
From the prirneft cows of his fuckling-herd, it Ihould 
be' the anxious care of the fanner to. rear his future (lock. 
By this means he would feldom or ever be liable to a va-‘ 
cancy inlns luckling-pens, and a breed be eltablifhed and 
adapted to his farm, greatly fuperior, perhaps, to any he 
could purchafe. Befides, he would always have this ad¬ 
vantage, that he coiild retain the belt and molt promifing 
of his young cattle for the improvement of his general 
(lock, while the coarfe and ill-formed may be fent to the 
market or fair. 
The heft calves to be reared,.are thofe which fall earlv; 
that is, from Chriftmas to Lady-day, becaufe by weaniiio- 
thern the bufmefs of the fuckling is not impeded, and 
the calves, with due care and attention, will acquire con¬ 
fiderable growth before the 1’pring of the year, by which 
means they will go on with double advantage, and make 
larger cattle than any of thofe that are weaned later in 
the year. 
There are different modes of rearing calves in different 
diftriCts; but the molt natural and convenient, as well as 
that which is moll advantageous to the animals, is per¬ 
mitting them to fuck for a fufficient length of time to get 
into perfect order before they are put to other food, as 
in this way they become much Itronger, and more dif- 
pofed to thrive, than where brought up from the firlt by 
the hand, which is done to lave the milk. In Yorklliire 
the ufual method is, for the firft two or three weeks, for 
them to get milk warm from the cow; but for the next 
two or three weeks half the new milk is withdrawn, and 
Ikimmed milk fubftituted in its ftead ; and, at the end of 
that period, the new-milk is wholly withdrawn ; they are 
then fed on lkimmed-milk alone, or 1 fometimes mixed' 
with water, till they are able to fupport themielves by 
eating grafts, or other food of that fort. They are very 
feldom allowed to fuck. But in ChelhJre the practice is 
to allow the calves to fuck for the firlt three weeks. They 
are then fed on warm green whey, or fcalded whey and 
butter-milk mixed ; or with the green-whey water mixed, 
and oatmeal or wheat and bean-Hour added. A quart of 
meal or flour is thought fufficient to mix with forty or 
fifty quarts of liquid. Oatmeal, gruel, and butter-milk, 
with an addition of Ikimmed-onilk, are all’o ufed for the 
fame purpofe. Some one or other of thefe prepared foods 
is given night and morning for a few weeks after the' 
calves are put on that diet; but afterwards only once a-day 
till they are three months old or more. Calves in Glou- 
cefterlhire are not allowed to fuck above two or three 
days; they are then fed on lkimmed-milk, which is pre- 
vioully heated over the lire. When they arrive at Inch 
an age as to able to eat a little, they are allowed fplit- 
beans or oats- and cut hay, and water is mixed'with the 
milk. In Sulfex it is common to allow the calves either 
to fuck for ten or twelve weeks, or to wean them at the 
end of three or four, and to give them a liberal allowance 
of lkimmed-milk for fix or eight weeks longer. It is the 
cuftom in Suffolk to let the calves fuck fix orfeven weeks, 
and then to give them coarfe pbllard and oats with 
lkimmed-milk and water, letting them have fome fweet 
green hay conftantly till they are turned to grafts. In 
Norfolk, with early calves, the method is for them to fuck 
twice a-day for a fortnight, then to have the pail twice 
a-day for an equal length of time, afterwards once a-day 
for a month or fix weeks longer; cut hay, turnips, and 
fometimes carrots, being put in the mangers lor them, 
and of which they foon become very fond. 
Where calves are reared with Ikim-milk, it fliould be 
boiled, and l'uffered to ftand until it cools to the tempe¬ 
rature of that given by the cow, or a trifling degree mora 
warm, and in that ltate be given to the calf. Milk is 
frequently given to calves when made warm only ; but 
that method will not fucceed lb well as boiling it. If 
i tits 
