The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-06-15


at all, deserves good care and treatment.
The idea is here expressed that many
worthless COW to-day, If she had been
properly treated when a calf and heller,
cared for and suitably fed, would have
made far better COW, of fine productive
powers. For, while all COWS have
born possibility, the owner is responsible
if this COW is not developed into that ex-
treme limit Of production.
To this end the heifer calf should have
line Of good ancestry. A noted au-
thority says that "cows breed from the
blood, not their performance, SO that a
heifer calf from a milking strain is pre-.
ferable to one that has promis.
cuous parentage. The care Of calf aud
COW is matter of administering to the
office of the cows motherhood, and all
of the directing agencies of stable and
field should be to enlarge the powers of
the animal to increase her milk produc-
ton, so that when the heifer, at twenty
eight or thirty months old, comes into
the dairy, she will be to all intents and
purposes developed COW.
The calf, il spring arrival, should
be taken from the COW in due time, and
put on prepared food. Here the dairy
man must face the question whether to
take tho calf off at once, or allow it to
run with the mother for a few weeks. A
matter of profit comes in, for butter fats
are worth twenty five cents per pound,
and the latter practice soon makes the
litter helfer costly one. Skim milk,
even when lavishly fed, is not an ideal
food. In the stomach of the young
calves it docs not readily digest, for,
while the butter iats are not in them.
selves sustaining food, they are great
promoters of digestion and creators of
energy. II profit is an object, and
growth is insisted upon, substitute
must be found. Lnseed meal, cooked
to a jelly and added to skim milk, at the
rate of about two pounds to one hundred
pounds Of milk, makes the ration about
equal to the whole milk. Later on, oat-
meal, with the hulls sifted out and then
scalded, makes a capital addition to the
linseed. Feed the milk sweet and warm.
Do not let it get sour, and then feed
cold. Sour milk has lost about all its
sugar element. The sugar, next to the
casein, is the most important thing in
skim milk. Think of feeding baby
calf cold sour milk What mother
would think of feeding it to her own
baby, and yet this is, over and over
again, a mans judgment of infantile
wants.
When the calf has developed its fourth
stomach aud begins to chew its cud,
solids may be fed along with the fluids,
but the milk or mush must not be abau-
doned for some months. ] am inclined
to think that the calf should be stabbed
the first summer; not tied up, but given
the freedom OF the stable, well bedded,
and not be compelled to undergo
the life of "grasser." It costs as
much to keep the brood of flies that sub
sist upon the summer calf as the calf it.
self, with the additional disadvantage
that the cali is compelled to prepare this
food for the flies. IT the stable will en-
able the calf to retain the flies share, the
gain in worth will be surprising.
There is no reason why the heifer calf
should be so poorly kept that, when
six months old, it will sell for less than
a veal calf of four weeks. When the
time of stomach development ceases,
clover, whole oats, and similar food,
may be fed, but the feeding should not
be so lavish as to induce beef forming
habit. Feed so as to make good growth
and thrift. If we so feed as to fatten
the heifer unduly, the tendency is that,
when high feeding for milk is attempted,
the beef form again appears, and is hard
to hold in check. Handle the little calf
so that when it develops into a heifer it
will have COW habits. Make her life as
COW like as possible. Do not fol with
her, but handle her; go through with
the milking motions, at least, so that
when she takes her place in the dairy
she will not have to be subjected to the
''breaking" ordeal.
The two.year- old hefers had best run
with the dairy herd, come and go with
it, take their places in the stables and
have their dish of bran. These heifers
are now expected to calve in October,
and through the summer each one has
not only her own life and growth tc pro-
vide for, but another life must be sup
ported, bone and muscle provided for.
heterogeneous foods, like oats and clover,
have had stimulating effect upon milk
production, aud at this time it is fair to
suppose also developing effect upon the
udder itself.
This, with good stable life in the win
ter, flesh making foods rather than fat
tening ones, and those to some extent
o! q somewhat succulent character, regu-
lar feeding and comfortable warmth, alb
sence of the 'toughening" process, with
plenty of pure air and abundant sunlight
to build up constitution and vigor, will
give us the hardy COW with power to
transmit her good qualities to her daugh-
ters.-American Agriculturist.