274 ULSTER ROUND LOUGH NEAGH 



being benefited by a dressing of lime, despite the 

 proximity of the limestone below. On this farm 

 there was no flax, the only cereal grown being oats, 

 all of which were consumed except a few sold away 

 as seed corn. The finer oatmeal varieties had been 

 exchanged for the stiffer-strawed fodder oats, stiffness 

 of straw being a most desirable factor on land that 

 had been brought into so high a condition. Potatoes, 

 hay seed, and a few seed oats constituted the crops 

 sold away ; all the rest of the produce was devoted 

 to a herd of pedigree Shorthorns, of which over 

 fifty head were maintained on an area of less than 

 a hundred acres, though not of course without a 

 considerable expenditure on cake. The herd is well 

 known, and the bull calves and heifers command good 

 prices ; the district immediately round Tullahogue 

 is indeed of some repute for Shorthorn breeding, there 

 being several registered herds within a comparatively 

 small radius more, we were told, than in any other 

 area of equal size in the United Kingdom. Of course 

 all the stock raised on the farm were sold for breeding, 

 but a certain number of stores were also brought in 

 every autumn to eat up the root crop and be fattened 

 off before the spring. 



Being more remote from large towns, wages were, 

 if anything, even lower than on the other side of 

 the Lough los. to I2s. a week, and 8s. for plough- 

 men and stockmen who lived on the premises. Never- 

 theless, the " Union " (Rural District Council) cottages 

 by the roadside in which the labourers lived looked 

 neat and prosperous enough, without the air of 

 shabbiness and despair which is apt to mark the 

 outskirts of an Irish town. All the way round the 

 Lough to Armagh we were in a similar class of 

 country, interspersed with occasional stretches of bog, 



