Friday, August 17, 2012

Blatchford's Calf Meal



Blatchford's Calf Meal, the subject of this 1911 advertising postcard, was a milk substitute used for feeding young calves. The company claimed that it was "richer than milk at a third of the cost."




The introduction to Sepia Saturday 139 mentioned that one of the uses of bones was in animal feed. In the past, cattle feed might have contained some animal bone meal. I don't know whether bone meal was included in calf meal. Many countries now prohibit the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle because it is thought to have been responsible for the spread of mad cow disease.


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15 comments:

  1. I loved the old postcard and liked the way you linked it to the "bones" theme.

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  2. Again another twist to this weeks theme. The creativity of mankind...

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  3. A very cool way to link this. A great postcard as well! I'm kind of a fan of cows!

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  4. I can only think of those poor calves being deprived of their mothers' milk due to cost.

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  5. Nothing cuter than little calves. Obviously I'm not the first to observe your clever connection to this week's theme.

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  6. I'm sure the calves would have preferred cow's milk. Cute picture! Jo

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  7. These advertising cards are an interesting ephemera when you look at how color images were still uncommon even in books and magazines of the era. Did salesmen post them to customers or were they given away as promotions for people to use? I imagine that feeding calves was a big problem on small farms when cows rejected a calf.

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  8. Some advertising postcards were given away or offered as premiums. Others were mailed by the company, salesmen, or distributor. Blatchford's was in Waukegan, IL and this card was mailed from Waukegan.

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  9. I use bone meal for my bulb flowers and they do thrive. Thanks for stopping by. Sorry you had problems understanding the narrator on the video he did have a very think accent. Your interpretation is very creative. Blessings
    QMM

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  10. Well done for linking it to the "bones" theme. I have to confess I struggled a bit! I really like advertising postcards - you can learn so much about history from them.
    :)

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  11. Not only did bones get some of the blame for the spread of mad cows disease, it was also the reason why many butchers will not give people bones for their dogs.

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  12. A great link to the theme - and what a card, magnificent.

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  13. What a beautiful card! Enjoyed it!

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  14. I like those old advertising postcards. The mailman on both sides and the mail-sorters both got to read them too.

    Kathy M.

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  15. Great card, but to be honest, I'm always wary of those substitutes, whether for human or animal consumption, because we eventually eat the animals. Milk is the natural way to go.
    :)~
    HUGZ

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