XII 

 ULSTER ROUND LOUGH NEAGH 



AFTER the Ards we set out again from Belfast to 

 make a circuit of Lough Neagh, an area of water 

 big enough to have something of the sea's effect in 

 equalizing temperatures on the land surrounding it. 

 From Belfast to Lisburn we ran through poorish 

 country, mostly consisting of small grass enclosures 

 with perhaps one-tenth only of the whole under the 

 plough. There was no flax ; potatoes, turnips, oats, 

 and occasionally wheat formed the staple crops. 

 Much of the hay was about in the fields in small 

 pikes or being carried, but though it was the first 

 week in August and as favourable a season as we 

 are likely to meet with in this generation there was 

 a good deal of clover hay still standing in its pikes. 

 Many of the fields were gathered up into little stocks 

 to be threshed for grass seed, and here and there we 

 saw a party at work beating out the seed over a 

 rail on to a sheet spread in the open. From Moira 

 westwards the land and farming improved, the fields 

 were larger, and the proportion under the plough 

 greater. Occasional orchards, both old and newly 

 planted, were to be seen, for along the south side 

 of Lough Neagh a fair amount of fruit-growing goes 

 on, thanks to the equable climate and the deep soils. 

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