dairy-girl could bear her hand in it. The lips 
of the calves were not unfrequently injured 
by it. His reasons for this practice were, that 
the heat of the milk prevented the calves from 
scouring, made them thrive, and enabled him to 
put his rearing calves to skim milk, immediately 
from their being taken from the cow, or at least 
two or three days old. They never tasted ‘best 
milk’ after they were taken from the teat at that 
age.” 
Some calf-feeders mix eggs with the milk given 
to advanced fattening calves, others mix meal 
with it, and others try different though similar 
methods of increasing the amount of assimilated 
nourishment ; and not a few, when milk is scarce, 
give wholly or partially, as substitutes for it, a 
mixture of warm milk and meal and water, a 
mixture of linseed jelly, hot water, and hot milk, 
a mixture of powdered oil-cake and warm milk, 
or even so monstrous a medicament as balls of 
meal and water with a little gin? But all such 
artificial methods are at once unnatural to the 
| animal’s habits, deteriorating to its flesh, and 
unprofitable to the owner. Whenever thoroughly 
good milk is not quite abundant, some of the 
largest and best fattened calves ought immedi- 
ately to be sold, and all the rest fully fed on 
milk. “The whole secret of fattening calves for 
veal,” says Mr. Aiton, “is to give them, after 
they are three or four weeks old, abundance of 
milk, keep plenty of dry litter under them in 
their stalls, let them have the benefit of good air, 
moderate warmth, and be nearly in the dark.” 
Calves acquire the condition of prime veal in 
the course of from eight to twelve weeks, or, on 
the average, in about ten weeks. A good fat- 
tened calf usually weighs from 17 to 20 stones, 
_ of 8 lbs. each, and usually sells, in Smithfield 
market, at from 4s. 6d. to ds. 6d. per stone. Yet 
the largest and heaviest does not always fetch 
the most money; for a calf of 14 or 15 stones, if 
of the proper age, and thoroughly fat, often sells 
for a shilling or two more per stone than a calf of 
from 20 to 30 stones. Some farmers, however, 
are of opinion that, as a calf grows and fattens 
faster, and requires less milk, after ten weeks of 
age than before, one calf of 25 stones will really 
yield a larger clear profit than two calves of each 
15 stones; especially as the former case involves 
only one prime cost and one sale commission, 
while the latter involves two prime-costs and 
two sale-commissions. But both the absolute 
and the comparative profits are greatly modified 
by the manner of feeding, the distance from mar- 
ket, and the particular breed to which the fat- 
tened calves belong. The profits in the vale of 
Strathaven are far superior to those of the 
Liverpool and the London districts ; and they ap- 
pear to be affected, partly by the arelltny of the 
breed, and chiefly by the method of fattening ; 
the profits of the hither side of the London dis- 
trict are necessarily greater than those of the 
further side; and the profits of a breed which 
CALF. 
651 
produces whiteness as well as firmness in the veal 
are aways greater then those of inferior breeds,— 
butchers always giving the best price for the 
whitest flesh, and being in the habit of judging 
of the colour from the inspection of the interior 
of the mouth and the white of the eyes. 
When calves are intended to be reared as 
stock, all males which are not well formed, and 
all females which have not a broad pelvis and a 
perfect udder and teats, ought to be rejected ; 
and at the end of a month, all the selected males, 
not designed to be reared as bulls, ought to be 
castrated. Wherever milk is in low request for 
the market or the dairy, all calves will be reared in 
the best possible manner by being allowed to run 
during a year with their dams ; but wherever milk 
is valuable, they must be sooner or later weaned, 
—in some districts at the end of a few days, and 
in others, at the end of a few weeks,z—-yet they 
ought, in all circumstances, to suck the dam till 
her milk becomes fit for the dairy, and after- | 
wards to receive as much congenial nourishment 
as if they were allowed to grow up by sucking. 
A cow’s milk is the natural provision for the 
rearing of a calf, and contains a large proportion 
of highly nutrient principles; and any calf which 
is not reared, either on the milk itself or on food 
similarly and equally nutritive, is certain to be- 
come an ill-thriven and ungainly adult. A com- 
mon method, in districts where milk is but of mod- 
erate value, is, for about a month, to feed the calf | 
wholly with the cow’s milk from a pail,—for an- 
other month, to withhold a portion of the milk, 
and substitute linseed jelly or thin watergruel, 
—for the third month, to substitute a portion of 
skimmed milk for the cow’s milk,—for the fourth 
month, to substitute skimmed milk wholly for 
the cow’s milk,—and after the close of the fourth 
month, to feed wholiy on the most tender kinds 
of herbage or other provender adapted to the 
general stock. But in districts where milk is 
highly valuable, substitutes for portions of it 
must be early and constantly given; and among 
the most approved of these are watergruel, hay- 
tea, linseed jelly, turnips sliced in skimmed milk, 
and turnips and carrots boiled with cut hay and 
given warm. The treatment of calves subsequent 
to weaning necessarily depends on the nature of 
the farm, or the particular kinds of food which it 
supplies.—The diseases to which calves are most 
subject will be noticed in the articles CostIvENEss, 
Drarru@a, and Navet-Inn; and the particular 
qualities of their flesh will be noticed in the 
article Veau.— Mortimer’s Husbandry.— Buffon’s 
Natural History.— Journal of the Agricultural | 
Society of England—Papers of Mr. Aiton and Mr. 
Main in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture —Mar- 
shall’s Rural Economy of Gloucestershire —Mar- 
shall’s Rural Economy of Yorkshire—The Farmer's 
Magazine.—Clater’s Cattle Doctor —Sproule’s Trea- | 
tise on Agriculture.— Youatt on Caitle.—Rham’s 
Dictionary of the Farm—Low’s Elements of Agri- 
culture.—Blaine’s Veterinary. 
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