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deer, and if they cannot leap over a fence, they will contrive to creep through it."

P. 150. "Only two breeds of sheep, distinct and of pure blood, have been observed by the Surveyor in this County, the Leicester and the South Down."

Folding Sheep.-P. 152. “Very little folding: certainly nothing worth mentioning, in the practice."

Washing Sheep.-P. 152. "Sheep are not washed in this county early in the spring their tails are trimmed, to keep them clean."

GOATS.-This is a species of livestock, which abounds more, in Cornwall, than in any other district of the island; not excepting Wales. Goat's flesh is, or was a few years ago, an ordinary article of butchers' meat, in the Cornish markets. In the Report which I am now closing, they are merely mentioned, incidentally, in speaking of mountain pastures. See p. 544, &c. aforegoing.

SWINE.-P. 155. "A large white, long-sided, razorbacked pig, I have been told, was the true Cornish breed: this has been crossed by the Devon, Suffolk, and Leicester breeds, which have taken off length and sharpness, and added breadth and depth; a mixture of Chinese and Suffolk, is another variety."

"I have to observe, in honour of the swinish race, that notwithstanding the general jumble, I have, in my progress thought this county, met with very few bad pigs; they are all of them good grass-eaters, orchard and lane grubbers," (!) "and with this liberty of ranging, and a little kitchen offal, keep themselves in good store condition."

After enumerating different varieties of Cornish pigs, the Reporter adds, as from his own experience, p. 156. "All these sorts are good graziers, living well in the house on cut grass, and a little wash once a day."

DEVONSHIRE.

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DEVONSHIRE.

THE COUNTY OF DEVON is strongly marked with NATU

RAL DISTRICTS.

1. NORTH DEVONSHIRE :—an extensive and valuable tract of country; bounded by the Bristol Channel, on the north; and, on the south, by the wild lands in the environs of the mountain height of Dartmore.

2. The FOREST of DARTMORE and its ENVIRONS: a barren blotch which occupies a wide space, toward the center of County.

3. WEST DEVONSHIRE:-situated between the Dartmore Hills, and the western bound of the County. In natural and agricultural characteristics, it assimilates with East Cornwall; the two forming the adjacent valleys of the Tamar and the Tavey; and comprizing a well defined district,-whether in an agricultural, or in a mineralogical

view.

4. SOUTH DEVONSHIRE,-or the "South Hams." This district occupies the southern limb of the County. It is bosomed by the sea, from the mouth of the Teign, eastward of Torbay, to that of the Tainar, at Plymouth. Its northern boundry is the skirt of the Dartmore mountain;-its northeastern point being cut off, by the Haldown and Mamhead hills, from

:

5. The VALE of EXETER:-The garden of the west. This rich, beautiful, and genial district, is singularly well defined on the west, by a line of infertile heights; on the north, by the extended environs of the forest of Exmore; on the east, by the Blackdown hills, which sever it from Somersetshire, and, thence, by a continuation of tall steep sided hillocks to the English Channel; which bounds it on the south.

6. EAST DEVONSHIRE.-This minor portion of the County assimilates with the western extremity of Dorsetshire; in like manner as its opposite extreme unites with East Cornwall; the four points forming two well defined natural districts; the limits of that which is now under notice being the line of hills, last mentioned, and the western termination of the Chalk hills of the southern Counties. It is strikingly marked by its steep-sided, flat-lopt, table hills, separated by narrow, and, in some instances, fertile valleys. Its principal agricultural product is that of the butter dairy. -See DORSETSHIRE; article, Dairy. "GENERAL

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THE ABOVE can scarcely be deemed a fair title, for an

agricultural survey that is prosecuted, professedly, by Counties. It covers more ground than it can rightfully claim. The pages to which it is prefixed give a tolerable "General View" of the South Hams, and "some account" of the Forest of Dartmore, in Devonshire; but certainly not of the County at large. What little is said of North Devonshire, East Devonshire, and the Vale of Exeter, ought to have been suppressed. Even what is reported of the two first named districts, is so ill digested, and so full of incorrectnesses, as to render difficult the task of abstraction.

The subjoined is the unstudied apology offered by the learned Reporter,-or, judging from the manner of it, by an officious friend,--for the inadequacy of his performance. -It appears in a detached " Introduction."

"The zeal which I felt to promote, to the best of my abilities, the important objects for which the BOARD of AgRICULTURE was constituted, led me to undertake the survey of two districts, which, from their great extent, the variety of objects to investigate, added to other circumstances with which it is needless to trouble the Board, must necessarily render my Report not so complete as I could have wished. I hope, however, that it will meet with that candour and indulgence of which it stands so much in need."

In a section, of one page,-headed "the Midland and Northern Districts," the Reporter, himself, apologizes for his neglect of those most interesting parts of the County.P. 65. 66 Having said so much on the Southern and Western Districts, I shall be under the necessity of being very short

in my account of these districts. The lateness of the season, and my being obliged to go to Cornwall, prevented me from making an extensive tour through this part of Devonshire, a great part of which, I am informed, is extremely beautiful and romantic.”

I do hope that CAPTAIN FRASER, whom I formerly knew as a friend, will not take unkind the requisite animadversions of a Reviewer.--His education, early habits, and turn of mind, well befitted him for various employments; but certainly not for the difficult undertaking that was imposed upon him, by his inconsiderate countryman. The number of pages-seventyfive.

A well lined map of the County; to show its prevailing soils, &c.

NATURAL ECONOMY.

EXTENT.-P.

XTENT.-P. 8.-Mr. Fraser computes the extent"from Don's map, with the aid of the surveys made for the new map of Devon, by Mr. Tozer,"-to comprize "2,552 square miles;" and adds-" I think, therefore, that Devon may be computed at about 1,600,000 acres."

CLIMATURE.-P. 9. "The distinguishing characteristic of the climate of Devonshire is mildness."

"This mildness and temperature of climate is more particularly felt in winter."

P. 10. "From this advantage in point of climate, there is little interruption to vegetation in time of winter. It has the appearance almost of a perpetual spring. In the south of Devon, the snow seldom lies on the ground in severe winters more than three or four days.

"In the high grounds of Dartmore, and in the northern parts of the county, the climate is not entirely so mild; but the difference is not so great as the inhabitants them. selves apprehend.

"On Dartmore and the high grounds adjacent, snow continues in severe winters, sometimes ten days or a fortnight, but seldom longer."

SOILS.-The" Map of the Soil of Devonshire;" which is prefixed to this Report, does credit to its draughtsman; in as much as it gives a tolerably just idea of the natural division of the County, into more fertile and. less fertile, lands. But the sweeping tracts of "dunstone"-" clay""white chalk"! (lined as strong loam) and "strong loam" --serve only to induce an erroneous conception of the soils

of the several districts, which they are made to cover.-An extraordinary intermixture of lands prevails, throughout the County. In the letterpress, it is true, some attempts are made to separate the intermixed lands; but rarely with due effect.

The subjoined passage, I conceive, is the only one capable of conveying useful information to my readers.-Speaking of "red marl loam," the Reporter says,

P. 12. "This singularly rich stratum has a marked, but irregular progress, through different parts of this district;" (South Hams)" which I shall beg leave more particularly to describe.

"It begins in Plymstock, near Plymouth; from thence it holds its course to Yealmpton, Modbury, Aveton-Gifford, Ugborough, Ermington, Harburton, Ashprington, Stoke Gabriel, Paington, Marldon, Cockington, Coffenswell, King's Cerswell, Combeinteign Head, Stokeintein Head, Teignmouth, Bishopsteignton, Mamhead, Powdersham, Exminster, North Tawton, Bow, Collumpton, Clysthaydon, Broadclyst, Broadninch, and several other parishes adjoining the "The truth is this valuable variety of land is found in all the more fertile parts of the County.

east.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

APPROPRIATION.—A considerable porton of this

brief Report relates to the Forest of Dartmore; considered as part and parcel of the DUCHY of CORNWALL.

Its existing state, in 1793-4, and the improvements to be made in it, are the topics of discussion. The first object of the writer, it pretty evidently appears, was to show that the duchy lands were, then, of little or no value, either to the community, the duke of Cornwall, or to those whose domestic animals they maintained, nine months in the year. And the second, to point out their capabilities, as a wide field of improvement.

Neither of those designs, however, has, to my comprehension, been fulfilled. And having looked, in vain, for incidental remarks, concerning those wild lands, which might tend to correct, corroborate, or add, to my own, on the same important subject, I pass over the ground, in silence; lest I should otherwise be inadvertently led into expressions of censure*. · The

* For my own account of the existing state, and means of improve. ment, of Dartmore and its environs, in 1804,-see my WEST of ENGLAND; Ed. 1805.

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