River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-03-01
House, Farm and Garden.
f. Raising Calves.


Like everything else pertaining to a
farm. raising calves requires good judg-
ment and experience. 1t is best al
ways to leave the cali with the cow
several days, until the fever is out of
the bag and the milk good for family
use, and with proper management the
calf can be easily taught to drink milk
when four of five days old. 1t is i'm
portant that the calf should take its
first sustenance from the COW, to en-
able it to discharge the fetal nutri-
ment in its stomach and bowels, and to
give it strength for its future develop
ment. If calf is of no value to rear,
or if the milk is worth more than the
cost of feeding four or five weeks for
the butcher, it should be killed as
soon as the milk becomes good, but if
it is to be raised, it should have pure
milk for about ten days, when little
skinned milk may be added to the I'M
skinned by degrees, till it may be
fed entirely on skinned milk. 1t has
been shown by abundant tests that
calves will thrive as well on the
poorest butter-producing milk as on
the best; consequently, if a farmer
has any cows which give poor milk,
that should be fed to calves, because
it is not the cream that nourishes
them so much as other properties of
the milk. When four or five weeks
old they may be fed on buttermilk.
1t is good management to feed calves,
in connection with their milk, when
about ten days old, little cooked
meal. At first, take nearly table
spoonful of Indian, oat, or barley meal,
and cook il with little water then
mix it with the milk, and increase the
quantity of meal as the calves grow
older. Flax-seed boiled to jelly and
mixed with milk, when the calves are
10 days old, is good for them. 1t is
poor policy to stint calves which are
worth raising, as their future develop.
ment as good cows depends in a great
degree on the manner in which they
are treated when calves. Let them be
fed three times day at regular hours,
and as much as will satisfy them, and
in the end their owners Will never be
losers by so.doing. Look at the poor un-
slightly animals in the yards of farm
ers who half starve their calves To-
an aonfC ond hox-A
lar demonstration of what stinting
calves in their feed will do.
When calves are old enough to begin
to eat hay or grass, if confined to a
stable or yard, little fine, sweet hay,
or grass, should be placed within their
reach. 1t may be tied with cord.
and suspended where they can nibble
at it, and in few weeks, when about
four months old, they may be turned
out to pasture, still giving them a lit
tie meal and water once a day for a
week or two. They should have fresh
water in their pasture, which should
produce an abundance of good grass,
and they will go into winter quarters
in fine condition. Then, let them be
fed on good, fine sweet hay, with fod-
der corn Sweet cut and cured as soon
as it begins to tassel and a little meal
of any kind and when they are two or
three years old, you will have stock
that you will not be ashamed TO have
your neighbors see. Even the milk
that such cows will give, will be much
more than if they were poorly fed
when calves. There is no use in a
farmer expecting to raise fine stock of
any kind, unless he attends thoroughly
to their wants through all the stages
of their growth. If he grows a good
crop of corn, it must be fed, and the
weeds exterminated-no halfway
work and the same rule applies to
his live stock.