after the third or fourth week. Others introduce gradually
some new whey into the milk, first mixed with meal; and, when the calf
gets older, they withdraw the milk, and feed it on whey and porridge.
Hay-tea, juices of peas and beans, or pea or bean-straw, linseed beaten
into powder, treacle, etc., have all been sometimes used to advantage in
feeding calves; but milk, when it can be spared, is, in the judgment of
the Scotch breeders, by far their most natural food.

In Galloway, and other pastoral districts, where the calves are allowed
to suck, the people are so much wedded to their own customs as to argue
that suckling is much more nutritious to the calves than any other mode
of feeding. That it induces a greater secretion of saliva, which, by
promoting digestion, accelerates the growth and fattening of the young
animal, cannot be doubted; but the secretion of that fluid may likewise
be promoted by placing an artificial teat in the mouth of the calf, and
giving it the milk slowly, and at the natural temperature. In the dairy
districts of Scotland, the dairymaid puts one of her fingers into the
mouth of the calf when it is fed, which serves the purpose of a teat,
and will have nearly the same effect as the natural teat in inducing the
secretion of saliva. If that, or an artificial teat of leather, be used,
and the milk be given slowly before it is cold, the secretion of saliva
may be promoted to all the extent that can be necessary; besides,
secretion is not confined to the mere period of eating, but, as in the
human body, the saliva is formed and part of it swallowed at all times.
As part of the saliva is sometimes seen dropping from the mouths of the
calves, it might be advisable not only to give them an artificial teat
when fed, but to place, as is frequently done, a lump of chalk before
them to lick, thus leading them to swallow the saliva. The chalk would
so far supply the want of salt, of which cattle are often so improperly
deprived, and it would also promote the formation of saliva. Indeed,
calves are very much disposed to lick and suck every thing which comes
within their reach, which seems to be the way in which Nature teaches
them to supply their stomachs with saliva.

[Illustration: FROLICKSOME.]

But though sucking their dams may be most advantageous in that respect,
yet it has also some disadvantages. The cow is always more injured than
the calf is benefited by that mode of feeding. She becomes so fond o