HALWILL, NORTH DEVON 267 



SMALL HOLDINGS ON MR. HARRIS'S 

 ESTATE AT HALWILL, NORTH 

 DEVON. 



THE small holdings on Mr. Harris's estate date 

 from 1874. They were created largely by taking 

 small bits of land off the larger farms, and adding 

 them to adjoining cottages. 



The district is purely agricultural, and the laying 

 down of much arable land to grass since the times 

 of depression caused a diminished demand for 

 labour, which would no doubt have resulted in the 

 usual depopulation if the holdings had not been 

 created. 



As it is, while the rural population for the 

 county has gone down 30 per cent., the popula- 

 tion of Halwill parish has gone up 60 per cent. 



AGRICULTURE OF DISTRICT. 



It is essentially a cattle-rearing district. The 

 North Devon breed is gone in for exclusively. On 

 large and small farms alike the general practice is 

 to rear the calves and sell them at two years old. 

 They are largely bought up by dealers to go to 

 Sussex, where they are fattened for the Chichester 

 Market. 



On the larger farms quite two-thirds are now 

 laid down to pasture, and oats is the chief corn 



