The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-05-28
beans can be made profitable crop
st. Louis Republic.
cane .op rnE HErFER CAVE.


was called the rich farmers ''sport, !"
which the ordinary farmer could not
afford, and bear the extra expense Of
keeping fine cows. A. change is now ap-
parent. Only the rich can afford to keep
poor COW. Good breeding and rational
care have much to do with the develop
ment Of the COW. Let the breed or grade
be what it may, the calf, il worth raising
at all, deserves good care and treatment.
The idea is here expressed that many a
worthless COW to-day, if she had been
properly treated when calf and heifer,
cared for and suitably fed, would have
made far better COW, of fine productive
powers. For, while all cows have a
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
a line Of good ancestry. A noted au-
thority says that "cows breed from the
blood, not their performance, so that a
heifer calf from milking strain is pre-.
ferable to one that has q promis.
cuous parentage. The care OF calf and
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, II 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 the calf off at once, or allow it to
run with the mother for 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 heifer costly one. Skim milk,
even when lavishly fed, is not an ideal
food. In the stomach Of the young
calves it does not readily digest, for,
while the butter fats are not in them.
selves sustaining food, they are great
promoters of digestion and creators of
energy. If profit is an object, and
growth is insisted upon, substitute
must be found. Linseed meal, cooked
to 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 a 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 and begins to chew its cud,
solids may be fed along with the fluids,
but the milk or mush must not be ADAM
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." 1t costs as
much to keep the brood of flies that SUBJ
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. 1t 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 l.ept 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 tho 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 unduiy, 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 thas when it develops into heifer it
will have COW habits. Make her life as
COW like as possible Do not fool 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. ar-oldlheifers had best run
with the dairy herd, come and 60 with
it, take their places in the Stables and
have their dish of bran. These heifers
arc now expected to calve in October,
and through the summer eacn one has
not only her own life ard growth tc pro-
vide for, but another life must be sup
ported, bone and muscle provided for.
heterogeneous foods, likes oats and clover,
have mad a stimulating effect upon milk
production, and at this time it is fair to
suppose also developing effect uponthe
qdder itself.
This, with good stableiife ip the win
ter, flesh making foods rather than fat
tening ones, and those to some extent
o. somewhat succulent character, regu-
lar feeding and comfortable warmth, alb
sence Of the "sougheniQg" process, with
! r1tentv of ptire air and abundant snnIioh@