The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-03-21
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Raising Calves.


Like everything else pertaining to farm,
raising calves requires good Judgment and ex-
perience. 1t is best always to leave the calf
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
or five days old. 1t is important that the calf
Should take its first sustenance from the COW,
to enable 1t to discharge the fetal nutriment
in Its stomach and bowels, and to give it
strength for its future development. fla calf
is of no value to rear, or if the milk is worth
more than the cost of feeding four or five
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 unskimmed by degrees, till il
may be fed entirely on skinned milk. 1t has
been shown by abundant tests that calves will
thrive as we'll on the poorest butter-produc-
ing milk as on the best; consequently, if a far
mer has any cows which give poor milk, that
should be fed to calves, because it is not the
the cream that nourishes them so much as
other properties of the milk. When four
or five weeks old they may be fed on butter
milk.
It is good management to feed calves, in
connection with their milk, when about 10
days old, little cooked meal. At first, take
nearly tablespoonful Of Indian, oat, or bar
ley meal, and cook it in little water; then
mix il with the milk, and increase the guam
tity 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 Tor
them. 1t is poor policy to stint calves which
are worth raising, as their future develop
ment depends TO great degree on the man
ner in which they are treated when calves.
Int than hp fod fhrQo firnps a dou q p
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, unsightly an
imals in the yards of farmers who half starve
their calves to save few cent, and you have
ocular demonstration of what stinting
calves in their feed will do.
When calves are Old enough 10 begin to eat
hay or grass. if confined in stable or yard, a
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 tc
pasture, still give them little meal and wat.
er once day for week or two. They should
have fresh water in their pasture, which
should produce an abundance of oOd grass,
and they will 60 into winter quarters in fine
condition. Then, let them be fed on good,
fine sweet hay. with fodder corn, (sweet) cut
and cured as soon as 1t 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 q
farmer expecting to raise fine stock of any
kind, unless he attends thoroughly to theil
wants through all the stages of their growth
If he grows good crop Of corn, it must be
fed, and the weeds exterminated-no halt
way work; and the same rule applies to bis
live stock