Trixk Affricuhure. 
13 
the flock, which hail no decidetl character at first, becomes 
thoroughly monorrel. I have known stran^rers, practical men ot 
laree experience in their own countrv, who, on visiting Ireland 
for the first time, and looking from the windows of a railway 
carriage, have expressetl an opinion that Ireland is not suited lor 
the breeding of sheep. This is an erroneous conclusion. There 
are. of course, tracts of wet bottom lands which are unfit for 
sheep pasture ; but a large proportion of the sheep lands in 
Ireland are drv limestone soils. There is abundance of practical 
proof, also, that the climate is not unfavourable to shecjvbreetling. 
Want of good management mav. and undoubtedly does, exist in 
manv instances, and that of itself is a serious drawback : but the 
physical characteristics of Ireland are favourable, rather than 
otherwise, to the breeding of sheep. 
SwiXE. 
Anv review of Irish live stock would be incomplete without a 
notice of this class. The Irish Agricultural Returns for 1871 
state that there are l.(U4.li10 pigs in Ireland : and as they are 
chiefly in the hands of small farmers, they form, for various 
reasons, an important item in the live stock of the countrv. 
The old Irish, or " greyhound pigs, ' were " tall, long-legged, 
bonv, heavv-eared, coarse-hairetl animals, their throats furnished 
with pendulous wattles, and bv no means possessing hall so much 
the appearance of domestic swine as they did of the wild boar, the 
great original of the race." * These swine were remarkably 
active, and. it is said, could *' clear a five-barred gate as well as 
anv hunter." but they are now practically extinct. In a few 
remote parts some traces of the breed may occasionally be seen, 
but even those instances are becoming rarer everv year, from 
the almost uni%-ersal diffusion of improved breeds. 
The Berkshire is the favourite breed in Ireland. 1 orkshire pigs 
have also their advocates, and so also has a cross of the 1 ork and 
Cumberland varieties, which succeeds very well : but Berkshire 
blootl predominates, and one is often surprised to find excellent 
pigs of that breed in places and districts where their appearance 
is quite unexpected. Irish farmers find the Berkshire a hardv, 
easily kept, and generally useful breed ; and its general diffusion 
throughout the coimtrv is owing to the circumstance that most of 
the resident gentry have Berkshire breeding sows in their farm- 
yards, the protluce of which are disposetl of on moderate terms 
to the country people. The Berkshire department of the shows 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England have been drawn 
• BicbaidiPQ. ' On the Pig.' 
