358 THE 5HEEP OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



Conn aught has been for many years the chief sheep-breeding 

 province in Ireland, and graziers from other parts of Ireland 

 have long been in the habit of resorting to the great fair held 

 at Ballinasloe, in the month of October of each year, for 

 supplies of ewes and wethers. These Connaught-bred sheep 

 have always been noted for their large size, but they were coarse 

 and ungainly in their shapes. Culley, who visited the fair of 

 Ballinasloe about the close -of last century,* describes their 

 defects in very strong language. He says : " I am sorry to say 

 I never saw such ill-formed, ugly sheep as these ; the worst 

 breeds we have in Great Britain are by far superior. One would 

 almost imagine that the sheep-breeders in Ireland have taken 

 as much pains to breed plain, awkward sheep as many of the 

 people in England have to breed handsome ones. I know 

 nothing to recommend them except their size, which might 

 please some old-fashioned breeders, who can get no kind of 

 stock large enough. These sheep are supported by very long, 

 thick, crooked, grey legs ; their heads long and ugly, with large 

 flagging ears, grey faces, and eyes sunk ; necks long, and set on 

 below the shoulders, breasts narrow and short, hoUow before 

 and behind the shoulders, flat-sided, with high narrow herring 

 backs, hind quarters drooping, and tail set low ; in short, they 

 are almost in every respect contrary to what I apprehend a 

 well-formed sheep should be ; and it is to be lamented that 

 more attention has not been paid to the breeding of useful 

 stock in an island so fruitful in pasturage as Ireland." Culley, 

 however, found some traces of improvement in the general 

 character of the Connaught sheep, owing to the partial intrO' 

 duction of English rams, and he remarked, when referring to 

 the descendants of those imported sheep, that ''it is both 

 extraordinary and pleasing to see how much they exceed the 

 native breed." It had not, however, been an easy matter to 

 improve any class of live stock in Ireland previous to that 

 period, as the exportation of breeding stock from England to 

 Ireland was strictly prohibited. Some enterprising persons had 

 from time to time contrived to evade the law and to smuggle 

 into Ireland rams and ewes of English breeds, which were sold 



* Culley reports that 95,000 sheep were shown in the fair at which he was 

 present, and that there had often been more. 



