It has been found in practice that calves properly bred and raised on the farm have a far greater intrinsic value for that farm, other things being equal, than any that can be procured elsewhere, while on the manner in which they are raised will depend much of their future usefulness and profit. These considerations should have their proper weight in the decision as to whether a promising calf from a good cow and bull shall be kept or sold to the butcher. But, rather than raise a calf at hap-hazard, and simply because its dam was celebrated as a milker, the judicious farmer will judge of the peculiar characteristics of the animal itself. This will often save a great and useless outlay which has sometimes been incurred in raising calves for dairy purposes, that a more careful examination would have rejected as unpromising. The method of judging stock developed in a former chapter is of practical use here, and it is safer to rely upon it, to some extent, particularly when other appearances concur, than to go on blindly. The milk-mirror on the calf is small, but no smaller in proportion to its size than that of the cow; while its shape and form can generally be distinctly seen, 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 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 fatted 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 suckle 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, on the ground that there is a more profitable way even for 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.