270 ULSTER ROUND LOUGH NEAGH 



purposes, which again, when crossed with a thorough- 

 bred sire, will yield the typical Irish weight-carrying 

 hunter. The complaint among horse breeders is that 

 mares of the right stamp have become scarce ; the 

 thoroughbred has been used so much that only weeds 

 are left, and the Irish Department of Agriculture is now 

 trying to get into touch with the remnants of the old 

 breed and work up a pure stock again. On this 

 farm our host had erected cottages of his own for 

 his men, to whom he was also paying about I2s. a 

 week, with a patch of potatoes and a pig. Labour 

 was not quite so abundant as it had been, owing to the 

 constant demand for men from Belfast. The women 

 still work in the fields at such jobs as haymaking and 

 hoeing turnips, but he noted that they were less 

 willing to come out than formerly. Not only was 

 the pinch of poverty less severe, but from Belfast a 

 large amount of embroidery work is brought out to 

 the cottages, and, poorly paid as every such home 

 industry is apt to be, the women prefer it to work 

 in the fields. In this district, which, if not so rich 

 as the Ards, still bore every sign of steady prosperity, 

 the farms had all been bought our host indeed had 

 acquired his nearly twenty years ago under the old Act 

 so that the flourishing condition of the farming industry 

 might be associated with the fact that ownership had 

 been operating for some time. 



We continued to follow the eastern side of the 

 Lough ; the country northwards became a little poorer, 

 with, as usual, more grass and smaller enclosures. 

 Many of the old land pastures looked poor and 

 neglected, overgrown with knapweed or hardhead in 

 particular ; some fields must have lost a fifth of their 

 grazing through the prevalence of the weed. Even 

 a scythe would have effected an enormous improve- 



