, particularly at the end of ten or
twelve weeks. The development of the udder, and other peculiarities,
will give some indication of the future capacities of the animal, and
these should be carefully studied. If we except the manure of young
stock, the calf is the first product of the cow, and as such demands our
attention, whether it is to be raised or hurried off to the shambles.
The practice adopted in raising calves differs widely in different
sections of the country, being governed very much by local
circumstances, as the vicinity of a milk-market, the value of milk for
the dairy, the object of breeding, whether mainly for beef, for work, or
for the dairy, etc.; but, in general, it may be said, that, within the
range of thirty or forty miles of good veal-markets, which large towns
furnish, comparatively few are raised at all. Most of them are fattened
and sold at ages varying from three to eight or ten weeks; and in
milk-dairies still nearer large towns and cities they are often hurried
off at one or two days, or, at most, a week old. In both of these cases,
as long as the calf is kept it is generally allowed to suck the cow,
and, as the treatment is very simple, there is nothing which
particularly calls for remark, unless it be to condemn the practice
entirely, upon the ground that there is a more profitable way of
fattening calves for the butcher, and to say that allowing the calf to
suck the cow at all is objectionable on the score of economy, except in
cases where it is rendered necessary by the hard and swollen condition
of the udder.

If the calf is so soon to be taken away, it is better that the cow
should not be suffered to become attached to it at all: since she is
inclined to withhold her milk when it is removed, and thus a loss is
sustained. The farmer will be governed by the question of profit,
whatever course it is decided to adopt. In raising blood-stock, however,
or in raising beef cattle, without any regard to economy of milk, the
system of suckling the calves, or letting them run with the cow, may
and will be adopted, since it is usually attended with somewhat less
labor.

The other course, which is regarded as the best where the calf is to be
raised for the dairy, is to bring it up by hand. This is almost
universally done in all countries where the raising of dairy cows is
best understood--in Switzerland, Holland, some parts of Germany, and
England. It requires rather more care, on the whole; b