IMPORTANT TO FARMERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 148, 21 February 1916, Page 2

IMPORTANT TO FARMERS.

We are trying to do two things at once, which nature only intended to be done one at a time, and this with only one set of tools. Head for yourself what follows and see if it is not true.

In ordinary nature the calf from birth drew from the cow somewhere about twenty pounds of milk per diem and that in small quantities at frequent intervals, and when sufficiently nourished was turned off by the mother to shift for itself. The process of reproduction then began again in the mother. Now what do we do'/ When born the calf is taken away from the mother—it is fed anything up to two gallons at a meal and we wonder at the indigestion and other bowel troubles that occur, never giving a thought as to what kind of tools nature gives the calf inside, and if they were over inteuded to do for the calf what we wish. Our idea is to feod the calf as we wish, and not as it was intended by nature. Scours, unthriftness, ring worm, and kindred diseases are the outcome of this faulty feeding. Turn to our treatment of the mother cow. She is also called upou to provide huge ijuantitios of milk twice daily aud at the samo time carry on the functions of reproduction, while still giving large quantities of milk. To do this properly a cow should have at least two mouths and two stomachs—one to supply the milk giving functions and the other to nourish the calf as yet unborn, but we expect her to do the two things with oue set of tools—thus showing our ignorance of tho processes that are employed. It is a well known fact that there are several pounds of mineral matter required to every lOOOlbs of milk, aud that the bones tissueetc of the unborn calf also lequire a large amount of tumoral matter which must be obtained from the grass, but tho quantity is insuificient for her need. She eats all she can hold and at about the lifth month of gestation the unborn calf begins to make persistent demands for mineral matter to convert the cartilageous form into true bones Tho pinch up to now has not boon pressing unduly on the calf, but as the latter's demands increase so the distention of the cow's stomach increases in like proportion, and if tho mineral matter necessary to stiffen the bones of tho unborn calf is not supplied then it is pinched or pressed till life is extinct, and thus we get a slip. This form of abortion coustitutes fully 80 per cent, of all slips and occurs at the fifth to seventh month after service, while the contagious form generally occurs much oarlier, viz., tirst second or third month. The moral to draw from this is that a constant supply of necessary mineral should be always before tho con, so that she can get what she wants without trying to provide hor ueeds from the grass alone, for in time she will develop a depraved craving for bones, slicks, or huge quantities of necessary grass—all of which do not givo her what she wants quickly enough. Tho remedy has been found, and is easily to V had, and is now put bofore you '■■ yjfc tho form of Ratjon's which is now obtainable in \our town or at the Dairy Coy.—Charles Kidd, Pukekohe, Bole Agent. Advt.