Exmoor Reclamation. 
85 
strictly held to apply to the Devonian slate, or Old Red Sand- 
stone, country only, and not to extend to the yellow clays which 
bound that formation on the south, and reach across the whole 
basin from the slopes of the Exmoor slates to the Dartmoor 
granite. 
There are few or no parishes here in which thriving farmers 
are not to be found who sprang directly from the labouring class, 
and this is nowhere more easily to be seen than on Exmoor. 
William Carter, of Litton Farm, who has raised himself to 
the position of one of the best breeders of North Devon stock, 
was an ox-boy on Honeymead Farm, and afterwards a postilion 
in the late Mr. Knight's stables at Simon's Bath. His farm is 
in the wildest part of the Exmoor Hills, adjoining the parishes 
of Molland and Anstey. He seldom sells a cow calf under 10 
guineas, or a heifer under 35Z. to 50/. Shorthorn breeders may 
laugh at these prices, but on Exmoor they are thought very 
remunerative ones. Having worked with the subsoil plough 
and ox-teams in his boyhood, he was not afraid of breaking up 
the black land, and shortly after taking his farm had some 
capital fields of reclaimed peat. 
William Carter still lives on Exmoor, though he has bought 
at 50/. an acre, out of his savings, a farm into which he has put 
his daughter and son-in-law. He is one of the few Exmoor 
tenants without a lease, but he well knows that his rent will not 
be raised during his lifetime. 
Excellent herds of North Devon cattle are also to be seen on 
some of Mr. Knight's South Forest farms. A visit to Emmett's 
Farm (Mrs. Tucker), and Wintershed Farm (Mr. Richards), will 
well repay any fancy breeder of North Devon stock. 
William Hayes, of the Warren Farm (recently dead), had 
been one of the late Mr. Knight's cattle-herds for many years 
at 15s. a week. His rental was nearly 400/. a year on Exmoor 
■'alone. His son still holds his lease of the Warren Farm. 
William Fry, of Picked Stones Farm, came to Exmoor to work 
in the nursery as a day-labourer. 
His predecessor in Picked Stones Farm, Francis Comber, was 
also, in his youth, a day-labourer in Mr. Knight's employment. 
He afterwards worked a lime rock, and had saved 1000 guineas 
before he took Picked Stones at a rent of ISO/, a year, which rent 
is now, on reletting, largely increased. Comber has retired, with 
a good competency, to his native village, after placing both his 
sons in business. 
Many other examples may be named on Exmoor alone of 
labourers who have grown into farmers, but enough has been 
said to show that the influx into the market of good land, let at 
