BARLEY GROWING 275 



and perhaps not quite so well farmed, with a smaller 

 proportion of tillage, though still including some flax. 

 Armagh is a striking looking town crowned by the 

 old Cathedral, but altogether dominated by its new 

 Roman Catholic rival immense and imposing, but 

 with a touch of the skyscraper about it, set on an 

 adjoining but higher hill. 



Thence to Newry we crossed the low range which really 

 forms the southern boundary of Ulster and into the valley 

 of the Glenrye to Newry, the entrance to one of 

 the most exquisite of the many beautiful roads in 

 Ireland that which runs along the southern side of 

 Carlingford Lough, with the shapely heights of the 

 Mourne Mountains across the water, soft rich wood- 

 land below, bare moor and crag above. An outpost 

 of the same granitic mass has to be crossed before 

 Greenore is reached, from which point southward, 

 between the hills and the sea, stretches a fertile plain 

 containing some of the best cultivated land in the 

 country. It is especially suitable for the growth of 

 barley, the low rainfall and the equable climate 

 making for quality, until over the few favoured square 

 miles there is actually more land under barley than 

 under any other single crop. Most of the farms 

 extend to about 50 acres, though the one we visited 

 was exceptionally large ; we were informed that they 

 had not yet been bought, though the price had been 

 fixed and would take effect as soon as the Com- 

 missioners had money available. Rents were a little 

 under 1 an acre, and the tenant right would be 

 usually equivalent to another equal annual charge 

 upon the farming. The soils were evidently of drift 

 origin and largely due to glacial action, for the grey 

 free working loams were full of stones of all sizes and 

 origin, on some of which, when dug out of the 



