The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-08-03

The practice O breeders j. faising
calveS dtftrs widely, varying from that
ofthe man Who peIef sllexs ths Gall
TO touch the .Cows SeasS, 10 shsa Sf.the
breeder who permits. the calf to run
with the dam for six or eight months.
We always suspect the advocates Of
hand-raising Of q stronger desire TO save
milk than to raise frst-rate stock.
When milk sells for eight or ten cents
quart, and butter for seventy.rive
cents a pound the temptation 10 par
ticularly strong to wean the calf ut two
or three days old, and substitute skim.
milk, hay-tea, or scalded meal, for the
natural food. The calf costs at least
fifty cents day, and at q month old
has eaten about as much as he will
sell for when a yearling. The cost Of
milk prevents most people who live
near good markets. from attempting to
raise their own cows or oxen, unless
they keep thoroughbred animals, and
get large prices for them. We have
seen very fair stock raised by early
weaving, and substituting other food
for the mothers milk, but the best we
have ever seen has come up in the
natural way for the first month Of lite
at least, and had full feed afterward.
Milk is the natural food, and meets all
the alimentary wants Of the calf. lie
neither drinks water, nor touches grass
for some weeks, if he can have access
TO the dam. There is q good deal OF
difficulty in forcing them to any sub
stitutes, and if successful in teaching
them 10 drink cruel and slops, they not
infrequently sicken and pine, and some
times die. The stomach OF the calf ID
prepared for new milk, and nothing
else completely meets its wants. AT
month old, the mothers milk has
undergone some changes, and the young
animal still more, 80 that it can begin
to appropriate more solid food without
checking its growth. Even then, the
change should be gradual, until it can
find full nourishment in goodlpasture.
The practice of turning weaned calves
into the road, or into a wooded pasture,
where they are compelled 10 live upon
brouse, rather than grass, 10 as much
to be deprecated as the practice OF early
weaving. AS soon as weaned they should
have full feed, either in a flush pasture,
or in the absence Of that, the best the
farm affords. The first few months ofthe
animals life will determine ito character.
We cannot have beef in perfection
without generous feeding. II we want
fieetness and strength in the working
OK, he must be able to appropriate food
largely, or his muscle will fail. If we
want flesh, or milk, we can have them,
economically, only from full feeders.
The cheese and butter are in the grass,
and hay, and meal, and the COW is but
the machine that transmutes these ra"
articles into finished products. Our
profit depends upon the habit Of appro-
priating the food generously. The ex.
ceptional cows, that give us 40 lbs; OF
milk, or two pounds of butter, in a day,
are always great feeders. This habit
of appropriating food largely must be
formed early, or not at all. Blood
goes a great way, but no excellence OF
stock is proof against early abuse and
stinted growth for the first year. five
want TO raise firstrate cows, we must
either move into districts where milk is
very cheap, or shut our eyes to the cost.
The latter is probably the cheapest in
the end. A three-year old helfer may
be worth fifty dollars, or hundred and
fifty, according to early treatment.