1546 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
October  11,  1900. 
■minor  ones)  is  overcrowding.  It  is  all  very  well  to  talk  of  increasing 
your  stock,  but  it  is  not  well  unless  at  the  same  time  you  increase 
your  comfortable  accommodation.  We  use  the  word  comfortable, 
because  for  the  young  accommodation  which  is  not  comfortable  is 
harmful  in  the  extreme.  This  applies  equally  to  indoor  and  outdoor 
accommodation. 
Wholesome  air — plenty  of  it,  clean  space,  dry  shelter  are  all  as 
necessary  to  young  stock  as  they  are  to  human  beings.  No  coddling, 
we  do  not  mean  that  for  a  moment ;  but  comfort  and  coddling  are  two 
Tery  different  things.  We  have  seen  coddling  in  very  unhygienic 
surroundings.  Unnatural  food  is  a  great  source  of  evil.  Perhaps  we 
ought  to  have  said  there  are  three  great  cmses  ;  but  really  one  would 
think  the  question  of  proper  food  is  so  simple  that  no  one  could  make 
mistakes.  Nature  provides  food  for  the  newcomer  ;  man,  wishing  in 
his  superior  (?)  wisdom  to  supplement  Nature,  throws  everything  out 
of  gear. 
We  all  know  from  sad  experience  how  easy  it  is  to  derange  an 
adult  stomach,  but  in  the  case  of  adults  the  derangement  may  be 
perhaps  easily  adjusted  ;  in  the  case  of  young  stock  a  deranged 
stomach  generally  spells  death.  We  never  take  up  an  agricultural 
paper  without  seeing  queries  as  to  the  health  of  young  stock,  or  rather 
perhaps  we  should  say  the  ailments.  Every  season — and  the  season 
of  calves  seems  pretty  nearly  all  the  year  round — do  we  hear  of  much 
mortality.  Scour  appears  to  be  the  active  agent,  and  we  believe  that 
scour  is  so  preveatible  that  it  really  should  not  exist  in  a  well- 
managed  herd. 
White  scour  in  calves — seldom  heard  of  in  foals  or  lambs  unless 
they  be  “  cade,”  or  hand-fed  ones.  Why  should  this  be  ?  We  do  not 
value  the  milk  of  mires  or  ewes,  but  we  do  value  the  milk  of  the  cow, 
and  greedily  wish  to  annex  every  drop.  The  foal  and  the  lamb  are 
■not  on  being  dropped  instantly  taken  from  their  mothers.  They,  the 
mothers,  are  usually  in  comfortable  warm  quarters,  most  suitable  for 
the  well-doing  of  the  youngster;  they  feed,  not  at  stated  times,  but 
just  when  they  feel  the  slightest  inclination,  a  little  and  often 
being  their  motto  ;  the  stomach  is  so  small,  and  by  this  means  it 
does  not  get  overloaded,  and  the  newly  secreted  milk  being  slightly 
aperient  in  its  nature,  food  and  stomachic  corrective  go  together.  Now, 
only  a  few  happy  calves  are  brought  up  on  the  same  lines;  on  farms 
where  this  s\  stem  exists  mortality  among  the  calves  is  seldom  to  be 
met  with.  We  have  much  fault  to  find  with  the  calf-liouse;  it  is 
usually  far  from  what  it  ou^ht  to  be — dark,  damp,  and  therefore  cold, 
and  so  most  unhealthy.  The  calf  is  thus  predisposed  for  any  ailment. 
Then  comes  the  feeding;  it  is  not  little  and  often  now,  it  is  a  great 
deal  and  only  seldom,  and  thit  “great  deal”  has  to  be  taken  in  a 
hurry  out  of  a  pail  instead  of  sucked  in  slowly.  We  all  know  how 
pleasant  food  produces  that  sensation  known  as  a  watering  mouth. 
The  action  of  sucking  excites  the  salivary  glands,  and  the  fluid  given 
out  assists  the  process  of  digestion.  In  drinking  there  is  little  or 
no  action  of  the  glands,  and  all  the  digestive  process  must  be  done 
in  the  stomach  ;  the  stomach  not  being  equal  to  the  task,  the  great 
mass  of  curdy  milk  must  be  got  rid  of  somehow,  and  then  diarrhoea 
sets  in,  and  this  diarrhoea  or  scour  is  very  tiresome  to  stof) ;  indeed,  in 
most  instances  it  proves  fatal. 
Now  it  is  of  little  use  diluting  on  a  very  common  ccmp'aint  unless 
one  is  prepared  to  suggest  a  remedy.  And  our  idea  of  a  remedy  is 
this — keep  clear  of  the  disease.  Prevention  is  always  better  than 
cure,  and  that  scour  can  be  prevented  is  absolutely  certain.  Begin  at 
the  beginning  with  this  young  life  ;  let  the  little  calf  stay  with  its 
mother  in  her  warm  comfortable  box.  She  will  see  to  its  being  kept 
warm ;  her  rough  tongue  will  lick  the  moist  coat  and  dry  it,  and 
promote  circulation  far  better  than  you  can  do  with  wisns  of  straw  or 
hay.  She  will  see,  too,  that  it  is  led  often,  and  that  it  is  not  robbed 
of  her  first  milk,  called  in  country  parlance  “  beastlings.”  This  milk 
is  of  a  decidedly  aperient  nature,  and  serves  to  clear  the  system.  If 
you  cannot  let  the  calf  stay  with  the  cow  long,  at  any  rate  try  to  alter 
your  plan  of  feeding ;  it  will  make  trouble,  but  better  have  trouble 
than  ultimate  loss. 
See  that  the  milk  is  absolutely  sw’eet  and  just  warm,  and  let  it 
have  several  meals  a  day  rather  than  that  immense  “swilling”  (we 
can  call  it  nothing  better)  every  twelve  hours.  Twelve  hours  is  far 
too  lor  g.  None  ot  us  feels  so  well  after  a  heavy  meal  on  a  prolonged 
fast.  Of  course  there  are  occasions  when  the  cow’s  milk  is  of  too 
laxative  a  character,  and  if  she  is  in  bad  or  even  poor  health  the  calf 
must  suffer. 
One  of  the  best  remedies  in  cate  of  scour  is  the  old-fashionetl 
castor  oil.  It  is  said  never  to  do  any  harm,  and  it  removes  the 
irritating  cause  and  heals  the  bowel.  There  is  another  fine  thing,  quite 
as  well  known  as  the  oil  and  equally  nasty.  Who  does  not  know  old 
“Gregory?” — he  lives  still  in  his  powder.  An  eminent  “vet” 
suggests  two  teaspoonfuls  of  “Gregory”  and  one  of  carbonate  of  soda 
with  a  wineglassful  of  lime  water  given  morning  and  night  in  the 
milk.  If  there  is  much  pain,  and  any  appearance  of  blood  in  the 
scour,  add  a  teaspoonful  of  laudanum.  Mind,  once  get  white  scour 
well  established  on  your  premises  it  quickly  becomes  an  epidemic,  in 
such  a  case  the  calf  house  must  be  thoroughly  cleansed  and  lime- 
washed,  and  treated  with  carbolic.  We  have  spoken  at  length  on 
“scour”  because  it  seems  to  be  the  greatest  foe  of  the  infant  calf. 
We  have  seen  it  work  so  much  mischief  and  heard  of  more. 
Well,  as  soon  as  lambs  have  fairly  got  hold  of  Turnips  they  are 
practically  safe,  but  it  is  a  critical  time  for  them  the  days  of  early 
autumn.  They  need  much  care  and  change  of  diet.  Cabbages  and 
Thousand  Head  are  the  salvation  of  lambs,  and  a  timely  “drink” 
should  a  cough  be  heard  is  a  thing  of  great  importance.  If  change  of 
pasture  is  not  practicable  it  is  not  a  bad  thing  to  take  a  flock  of  lambs 
for  gentle  walking  exercise  in  lanes  and  bye  roads  They  pick  up 
oddments,  bramble  leaves,  bits  of  Elder  bush,  and  a  hundred  other 
things  which  all  act  as  tonic  and  change.  It  is  a  most  provoking 
thing  to  lose  lambs  now  after  the  perils  of  lambing,  the  expense  of 
summer  keep  and  shepherding. 
With  October  here  most  foals  are  either  weanel  or  about  to  bo  so. 
They  leave  their  mothers  in  good  condition,  and  their  future  growth 
depends  entirely  on  the  treatment  they  get  during  the  winter 
months.  Young  stock  should  never  be  allowed  for  a  moment  to 
cease  moving  in  the  right  direction.  We  are  fond  of  early  maturity 
nowadays  ;  and,  indeed,  it  seems  the  only  way  to  cope  with  keen 
competition. 
Foals  do  not  want  pampering,  but  they  do  require  plenty  of  good 
wholesome  food  and  some  sort  of  shelter  in  rough  weather.  There 
is  not  much  nutrition  in  grass,  and  a  foal  should  have  as  much  sound 
hay  as  he  can  eat,  and  from  3  to  5  lbs.  of  either  crushed  oats  or  grain 
mixture  in  which  oats  figure  largely.  Breeders  of  shires  think  a  few 
beans  desirable,  but  they  should  not  be  given  in  a  larger  proportion 
than  one-fourth.  A  handful  of  finely  crushed  linseed  cake  about 
twice  a  week  will  be  found  useful  in  regulating  the  bowels,  and  also 
in  keeping  up  the  natural  heat  of  the  body.  If  th^re  be  no  shed  in 
the  field  where  foals  are  wintered  they  should  be  brought  up  at  night. 
This  entails  more  labour,  and  we  ourselves  are  more  in  favour  of 
making  a  shed,  even  if  ft  be  a  rough  one.  There  are  days  in  winter, 
as  we  well  know,  that  are  more  inclement  than  the  nishts,  and  if  the 
shelter  is  there  it  will  be  found  the  foals  will  always  avail  themselves 
of  it.  A  badly  wintered  foal  gets  into  such  low  condition  that  he  is 
susceptible  to  all  sorts  of  ailments,  his  growth  is  stunted,  and  it  takes 
a  great  deal  of  summer  grass  to  put  him  into  “  fettle  ”  again ;  indeed 
he  may  be  said  to  lose  some  of  the  most  valuab'e  months  of  his  life. 
.  Work  on  %  Home  Farm. 
With  the  exception  of  one  afternoon’s  rain,  which  would  be  very 
refreshing  to  the  root  crops,  we  have  had  another  fine  and  sunny  week. 
Good  progress  is  being  made  with  Potato  lifting,  and  prospects  are 
improving.  Disease  has  not  spread  further,  and  the  tubers  are  not  so 
much  affected  as  the  appearance  of  the  haulm  had  indicated.  They  are 
going  into  store  in  excellent  dry  condition,  and  we  hope  they  will  keep 
well. 
The  results  of  the  spraying  are  apparently  generally  satisfactory  ; 
the  samples  from  sprayed  plots  are  both  larger  in  size  and  sounder 
than  the  others.  We  think  spraying  will  become  a  general  practice. 
The  land  is  becoming  quite  hard  enough  for  successful  ploughing,  and 
we  notice  cessation  from  this  work  on  the  part  of  one  or  two  neighbours. 
We  have  not  seen  any  Wheat  drilled  yet;  mid-October  is  quite  early 
enough  for  a  commencement,  and  the  land  has  hardly  been  long  enough 
ploughed. 
Where  it  is  too  hard  to  plough,  the  land  which  has  been  turned  over 
should  get  the  chance  of  a  good  rolling.  The  roller  is  a  most  valuable 
help  to  the  Wheat  grower.  Tbe  sowing  of  Winter  Tares  must  be  no 
longer  delayed  if  they  are  to  be  safe  from  the  ravages  of  birds  before 
winter  sets  in.  Thei'e  is  nothing  better  than  good,  short,  well-decayed 
manure  for  Tares.  We  drill  3  bushels  of  seed  per  acre,  and  put  plenty 
of  weight  on  the  drill  coulters  so  as  to  get  the  seed  well  buried.  We 
think  that  the  generality  of  farmers  are  apt  to  neglect  Tare  cultivation. 
Nothing  is  more  useful  or  profitable  to  the  stock-breeder  or  cowkeeper, 
and  the  crop  is  highly  beneficial  to  the  land. 
Some  flock-masters  are  still  in  trouble  with  their  lambs,  as  we 
notice  that  drenching  is  still  prevalent.  Foot  and  mouth  disease  is  in 
evidence,  there  being  another  outbreak  in  Wiltshire,  and  we  note  that 
the  Argentine  Government  have  prohibited  the  importation  of  live 
stock  from  England  on  account  of  it.  This  brings  home  to  us  the 
importance  of  having  a  clean  bill  of  health,  and  the  necessity  of  the 
restrictions  used  to  compass  that  desirable  end. 
It  may  be  owing  to  the  price  of  coals,  but  we  have  not  come  across 
a  set  of  steam  ploughing  tackle  at  work  this  autumn.  No  doubt  the 
arable  land  of  the  country  is  in  a  very  good  and  clean  state  of  cultivation 
as  a  result  of  the  cycle  of  dry  seasons,  and  farmers  not  being  very  flush 
of  ready  money,  they  are  willing  enough  to  cut  out  any  item  of 
expenditure  which  they  are  justified  in  doing. 
