It is a very easy matter to teach a calf to drink milk, when one has seen
the thing done. Next morning this calf was impatient for her mess of warm
milk, so, after milking her dam, I took a shallow pan, and putting two
quarts of milk into it proceeded to give the first lesson in a calf’s
life, of doing without a mother. The process is very simple; you merely
wet the first and second fingers of the left hand with milk, and place
them in the calf’s mouth, to give her a taste of what is in store. Repeat
this a few times, then gradually draw the pan near her mouth with the
right hand, using your left as above. When the calf permits your two
fingers to enter her mouth, raise the pan so that your left hand will
be immersed, and the calf, by suction, will draw the milk up between
the fingers. At mid-day, another mess of milk, and a second lesson was
given; at evening a third. Next morning the process was repeated, but
in this instance she did not need the fingers to guide her to what was
good for her; she readily accepted the situation, and stuck her pretty
nose into the warm milk, which rapidly disappeared to where it would do
the most good. But with milk worth ten cents per quart, and cream seven
times as much, it did not “pay” to use six quarts daily of rich Jersey
milk in this way, so, after a fortnight’s supply of the raw material, the
feed was gradually changed to sweet skim-milk for two weeks, and then
substituting hay-tea, the milk ration was cut down to two quarts daily.
Beginning with a tablespoonful of cotton-seed meal, thoroughly mixed with
the feed, the quantity was increased in ten days to one pint daily. At
one month old, she was gradually taught to eat bran by stirring it into
her food.
The preparation of hay-tea is very simple. Nice hay is run through a
cutter, and taking an ordinary two-gallon pailful, boiling water is
poured upon it; it is then covered and allowed to steep for twelve hours.
This makes a most excellent food, and calves thrive upon it. The most
stylish and vigorous calf I ever saw, was raised upon hay-tea, with bran
and cotton-seed meal as here described. I enter thus fully into the best
manner of raising a calf without its mother, for the especial benefit of
my southern readers, where the thriftless habit of allowing the calf to
suck its dam, oftentimes until a year old, so generally prevails. In this
instance the little heifer got along nicely until two months old, when an
aggravated attack of scours set in, but by timely doses of laudanum in a
mess of warm gruel, poured down her throat twice a day, for three days,
a cure was effected. In ordinary cases of scours, a change to dry food
will correct it, but it is well to watch and not to permit the disease
to become seated. A few years ago, a very valuable young Jersey heifer,
received from the vicinity of Philadelphia, was taken in this way, while
undergoing the usual course of acclimation incident to northern cattle
brought south, and the simpler treatment proving of no effect, I gave
injections twice a day of rice-water and laudanum, besides drenching her
with corn-gruel and laudanum. This was kept up for ten days; we carried
her safely through, and her present value amply compensates for the time
and trouble expended.