8 SUPPLY OF SHEEP. 



tures, and passed on to Dublin or the English market. 

 The supply of sheep this year was little over sixty 

 thousand, being a deficiency of from ten to twenty 

 thousand as compared with former years. This is 

 accounted for by the quantity of " waste land " in the 

 western counties ; that is, land which has fallen into 

 the landlords' hands, and is unoccupied and unstocked. 

 It is also alleged that many graziers were obliged to 

 stock their lands with cattle instead of sheep, on account 

 of the difficulty of preventing sheep-stealing in the more 

 distressed districts, while the very numbers stolen de- 

 creased the usual supply.* The sheep were generally 

 splendid, the best three-year-old wethers selling at 

 upwards of 50s. each. The sheep fair is held in Lord 

 Clancarty's park at Garbally, where the immense droves 

 grouped about among the trees, and along the undula- 

 ting slopes, the cries of the shepherds and the barking of 

 their dogs, the shifting figures of buyers and sellers 

 moving about the field, all formed a very striking and 

 animated scene. 



Horses were not reckoned as good a show as usual, 

 but there were very many fine horses both for saddle 

 and harness. 



The supply of cattle was as much on the increase as 

 that of sheep was deficient. They were mostly crosses, 



* The decrease of the sheep stock is a notable fact, and is corroborated 

 amply by the constabulary returns of agricultural produce for 1847 and 

 1848, by which it appears that 



The total numbers of sheep in Connaught, for 1847, were 595,737 

 Do. do. 1848, 471,205 



Decrease, 124,532 



or one-fourth part of the whole stock in the province. 



