Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/187

 at a fair price to some milkman who would take it regularly and call for it, it would pay him best at first, and then he would have to milk whichever time suited his buyer best. It would most likely be in the evening.

If he takes much milk from the calves, or if they look poor, it will pay him to buy a bag of bran and make a sort of gruel for them occasionally (too often it may not agree with them). A pint of bran put into a bucket and a quart of boiling water poured over it, with a handful of coarse salt stirred in, will make enough for one calf. Let it stand till cool then add more water, warm if in cold weather, cold otherwise. As a rule, when they get used to this they will take it eagerly and fatten on it. But kindly treatment, patience and gentleness will make the greatest difference in cow yard and calf pen. The man who carries a stick to drive the calves to bed, or to bail up his cows, should be banished from among them. Treat all animals as friends and reasonable creatures and they will obey your voice and do your bidding carefully.

Having started my young farmer on his own land with a few cows bringing in a small return, I must now shew him how to earn something more from his land, while he is preparing it to make his fortune. We are supposing that he is near or within reasonable distance of a town. Well, his land has to be cleared and stumped for cultivation. Let him cut and stack all the wood he can, it will be best for him to hire a man to help him, or may be he can get a strong boy, able to use the cross cut with him, at 10s. or 15s. per week and his tucker. Often such a man as our young farmer can get a man or boy from the depôt; there is great sympathy between new arrivals, and if he can get into conversation with some one from his own country town, or even country, the chances are that he will be able to make a bargain beneficial to both. Many a new chum would rather work for nothing with a man from his own country than for high wages with a stranger who knows nothing of him or his country. He might even invite a few of the young men from his own country to stop with him till they can suit themselves with situations, get used to the country or recover from the sea voyage. The despised Chinese do this a great deal, and I really think many a white man might benefit in a like manner. Fellows won't mind roughing it in a tent if they are with a friend who can "can shew the ropes," to use a slang term, and talk to them of the far off home now and then. A Chinaman will often take five or six of his countrymen out to see his market garden, he says to them—"You can stop here for 'so long' till you get work, and you can work in my garden in return for your food." In this way many of these Chinese gardeners get their work done at very little expense. A white man, if