IRISH SHEEP 289 



commanded a good price in the market. He himself 

 only grew oats for his own horses and for seed ; in 

 fact, he rather specialized in growing seed corn of all 

 kinds, and had many varieties and experiments upon 

 his farm. He was disposed to increase his acreage 

 under wheat, and was in search of a good spring wheat 

 that could come conveniently after turnips in his 

 rotation. We noticed the tall feathery-headed Agrostis 

 as a troublesome weed in the corn here ; it is one of 

 the many creeping-rooted grasses to which the name of 

 " couch " or one of its variants is given, and occurs 

 sporadically on sandy soils in England, but always 

 intensively when it does take hold. 



The turnips were all drawn off the land for a herd 

 of pedigree Shorthorns, and also to some extent for the 

 sheep, of which a flying flock was kept and fattened 

 on the grass, for even that comparatively light land 

 poached badly if sheep were folded on it during an 

 Irish winter. White-faced ewes were bought and 

 crossed with a Shropshire or other Down ram, ewes 

 and lambs being sold off together when fat. Sheep in 

 Ireland do not seem to have attracted the attention of 

 the breeder in the way that cattle and horses have ; 

 there is only one defined native breed the Ros- 

 commons and over the greater part of the country 

 they seem to be of a very variable and unfixed type. 

 As defined by the Flock-book, the Roscommon should 

 be a hornless, white-faced, big, slowly-maturing sheep 

 with long and somewhat lustrous wool and a strong 

 constitution to enable it to pick up its living entirely 

 off grass and to stand the heavy rains of the West of 

 Ireland. It is generally credited with a considerable 

 infusion of Leicester blood of many years standing, and 

 indeed to-day looks not unlike a heavy, coarse 

 Leicester. White-faced sheep of this class are found 



