————— 
~ 
650 
lows:—“The house or room-stead in which a 
stage is placed, measures twelve feet by eight. 
Four feet of its width are occupied by the stage, 
and one foot by a trough placed on its front, 
leaving three feet as a gangway, into the middle 
of which the door opens. ‘The floor of the stage 
is formed of laths, about two inches square, lying 
lengthway of the stage, and one inch asunder. 
The front fence is of staves, an inch and a half 
in diameter, nine inches from middle to middle, 
and three feet high ; entered at the bottom into 
the front bearer of the floor, (from which cross 
joists pass into the back wall,) and steadied at 
the top by a rail, which, as well as the bottom 
piece, is entered at each end into the end wall. 
The holes in the upper rail are wide enough to 
permit the staves to be lifted up and taken out, 
to give admission to the calves, one of which is 
fastened to every second stave, by means of two 
rings of iron joined by a swivel, one ring playing 
upon the stavesthe other receiving a broad lea- 
ther collar, buckled round the neck of the calf. 
The trough is for barley-meal, chalk, &c., and to 
rest the pails on. Two calves drink out of one 
pail, putting their heads through between the 
| Staves.” 
The best method of treating a calf with the 
view of fattening it, is to feed it entirely on milk 
fresh from the cow, either by allowing itself to 
suck her, or by drawing off the milk and admin- 
istering it in apail. The allowing of the calves 
| to suck was at one time the general method, and 
is still the prevailing practice of some districts ; 
and it is frequently vindicated on the ground of 
its causing a free secretion of saliva, and in con- 
sequence occasioning a readier digestion and a 
more rapid growth. But the abundant secretion 
of saliva can easily be promoted, in the pail-feed- 
ing method, by placing an artificial teat in the 
calf’s mouth while feeding, and by preventing 
him from taking up the milk with unnatural 
haste. The fixing of a piece of clean leather, 
about three inches in length, to the bottom’ of 
the pail, the placing of the dairymaid’s finger in 
the calf’s mouth, or any other similar contriv- 
ance to act in the manner of a teat, will cause a 
perfectly sufficient flow of saliva simultaneously 
with feeding; and, by keeping a lump of chalk 
constantly within the animal’s reach, he will at 
all times, by licking it, be induced to swallow 
much saliva which would otherwise drop from his 
mouth and be lost. Even though the sucking 
method were considerably the best for the calf, it 
acts very injuriously on the lactiferousness of the 
cow, and occasions a great ultimate loss. A good 
cow yields more milk than can be consumed 
by a young calf, and she soon becomes so fond of 
the calf that she will not yield her milk to the 
dairymaid; and unless her udder be completely 
emptied at every milking, she suffers a gradual 
diminution in the lactic secretion, and will ne- 
cessarily and somewhat rapidly yield less and 
CALF. 
less till she become quite dry. But, in the pail- | given to the calves scalding hot,—as hot as the 
feeding method, every cow is made to produce 
milk as amply and prolongedly as possible; every 
calf receives enough of milk for its sustenance, 
and no more; a feeble calf does not occasion a 
diminution of milk in one cow, and a strong calf 
can be fed partially or wholly with the milk of a 
second cow; and any calf, reared for stock, may 
be weaned by degrees, or have other food slowly 
and increasingly substituted for milk, so as to 
prevent injury to its stomach from a too sudden 
change of food. 
A singular practice which prevails in some 
great suckling districts, renders the first stage of 
pail-feeding somewhat critical. . Multitudes of 
calves which are fed and fattened in the suck- 
ling districts, are brought to them, by profes- 
sional calf-dealers, from the dairy districts; and 
the animals are, in many instances, carried from 
so great a distance and in so injurious a manner, 
as to be half-dead on their arrival. They are con- 
veyed on flat, shallow carts, their four feet tied 
together, their heads hanging over, and their | 
stomach, for whole days, unrefreshed with food 
or drink; and, when they arrive, some die, and 
most require to be carefully nursed, and very 
gently treated. “If they are allowed to satisfy 
their appetite at first,” says Mr. Rham, “they 
invariably scour, that is, purge violently and die. 
If the strong astringent medicine sold in the 
shops for the scouring in calves is given to them 
in this weak state, it only accelerates their death. 
The best remedy is to boil the milk for them, and 
give them little at first; to mix some starch or | 
arrow-root with it, and to give them a raw egg | 
beat up in milk. This restores the strength of 
the stomach, and generally cures them. When | 
the calf begins to thrive on the milk which he 
sucks, or which is given him warm from the cow, 
nothing more is necessary than to keep him ex- 
tremely clean and dry, to give him plenty of air, 
but not much light, and never to disturb him 
between his meals.” 
Some calf-suckling farmers give two meals of 
milk in the day, and others give three. Some 
give the milk sparingly at first, in order to whet 
the appetite, and prevent a loathing of food; and 
others give a plentiful supply from first to last, 
and merely use care not to allowa surfeit. Some, | 
in order to produce superior flesh and a high de- | 
gree of fattening, feed the young calves on the | 
first-drawn milk, which contains a larger pro- 
portion of serum than the last-drawn milk, and © 
feed the more advanced calves increasingly on 
the last-drawn milk, till they receive, for a time, | 
that of two or even three cows ; and a few, in order 
to prevent scouring, and economize the profits 
of feeding, feed all calves on artificially heated 
milk, and rearing calves on heated milk deprived 
of its cream. An extraordinary instance of the 
latter, in the vale of Gloucester, is mentioned by 
Mr. Marshall. “In the practice of the first 
breeder in the vale,” says he, “the milk was 
