THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 215 



is by no means dense. Labourers' wages do not exceed 

 7s. 6d. per week ; a rate considered quite insufficient in 

 England. 



Mr Huxtable, one of the boldest pioneers of English 

 agriculture, resides in this county. This gentleman was 

 one of the first to assert the opinion, as he did in a 

 pamphlet, that, even at the low prices, English farmers 

 could retrieve themselves if they kept up their cou- 

 rage. One can imagine the storm raised by such an 

 assertion. Mr Huxtable was treated as a public enemy, 

 although himself a farmer, as well as rector of the 

 parish of Sutton Waldron. He has two farms, upon 

 which he puts his theories to the formidable proof of a 

 practical demonstration. The one, situated a mile from 

 Sutton Waldron, and the least important of the two, 

 is that upon which the distribution of liquid manure 

 by means of subterranean pipes was first practised. The 

 other, containing two hundred and eighty acres, lies 

 upon a bare calcareous hill, much exposed, and rising 

 abruptly for several hundred feet. It was at one time 

 almost in a state of nature, but is now admirably 

 cultivated. Here are to be seen all the new methods 

 carried out in some measure from their source. Mr 

 Huxtable's farm-offices are particularly worthy of notice, 

 from the great economy of their construction. Gene- 

 rally speaking, the English care less for show in their 

 farm-offices than we do : they sacrifice nothing to appear- 

 ance ; all they seek is utility. Mr Huxtable's cattle-sheds 

 are constructed with hurdles of broom and branches of 

 trees, roofed with straw; but nothing which may contri- 

 bute to the health and comfort of the animals has been 

 neglected. 



The remaining two southern counties are mountainous, 

 and of granite formation. Devonshire, which comes next 



