356 DEVON GREENERY 



crop. He then reverted to dung and obtained a 

 magnificent return, because with the nitrogen of the 

 dung the hitherto unused superphosphate came into 

 action ; but the conclusion he drew was that super- 

 phosphate and such like manures were foolishness, and 

 that dung alone was good. 



From the Padstow country we made our way 

 Londonwards by the main road, and found the eastern 

 part of the county more given up to grazing and less 

 to corn than the western ; indeed along the Great 

 Western line about Liskeard the production of milk to 

 be put on rail becomes a general industry, and the 

 farming mainly depends on dairying and the raising 

 of store cattle. The farming of South-West Devon 

 has many features in common with that of the east of 

 Cornwall ; indeed the valleys of the Tamar, Tavy, 

 Lynher, and other streams that flow down to Plymouth 

 Harbour form a natural agricultural unit, in which we 

 paused to see one farm in the neighbourhood of Tavi- 

 stock. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the 

 region, and one that was accentuated during that rainy 

 season, was the greenness and the rankness of the 

 vegetation. Every field carried a growth of grass that 

 seemed superabundant to one accustomed to the pastures 

 of the east or midlands, the grazing was rough, and 

 there was little attempt to keep the herbage bitten 

 down close. 



Trees are also very much in evidence, for the small 

 fields are divided by huge banks faced with stones, 

 which generally carry on the top a line of hedgerow 

 timber twenty or thirty feet high. There must be an 

 enormous amount of waste from these banks ; not only 

 is the area they actually occupy considerable, but for 

 many yards they exercise an evil influence upon the 

 corn, rendering it weak and blighted during growth, 



