LAND DRAINAGE 271 



ment, but, like other gifts, the grassland is apt to be 

 the most neglected part of the farm. Still there were 

 indications of a renewed interest in farming, a patch 

 or two of young fruit, and a large new osier bed by 

 the roadside, clean and well planted on land that 

 really seemed unnecessarily good for osiers, which can 

 be made to answer well enough where ordinary crops 

 get drowned. 



By the time we had reached Antrim the arable 

 farming had nearly all been left behind, and the fields 

 were occupied by cows of the usually Irish Shorthorn 

 type, but showing evidence of care both in breeding 

 and management. Sheep were rare or non-existent 

 the other live stock chiefly in evidence were the 

 inevitable goats and the poultry which occupy every 

 Irish road in force. Only on one farm did we see them 

 in the fields, and there they were tethered by the leg 

 and ran round at our approach in wildly fluttering 

 circles. We have heard much of late of the increased 

 trade in Irish eggs and poultry, but there is still plenty 

 of room for more, since at present they occupy only the 

 roads and not the fields. 



On the northern side of Lough Neagh the road 

 leads by several great demesnes with the enormous 

 stone walls characteristic of Irish estates, walls that 

 generally speak of work found for the people in 

 famine times but always of the cheapness of labour. 

 After the demesnes came stretches of bog, bright 

 enough just then with heath and cotton grass, dotted 

 here and there with stacks of peat drying in the sun, 

 but at present valueless for agriculture. The drainage 

 of the Bann valley is a sore question that has never 

 got beyond the stage of projects, the magnitude of 

 which has daunted every public body to whom they 

 have been submitted. But after Toome Bridge and 



