70 
Irish Agriculture. 
The cattle are sold during autumn, and on until Christmas. 
A supply of stock for the winter is purchased at Ballinasloe 
and other fairs in October ; the stock in that case consisting 
chiefly of SJ-year-old heifers, and 2 shear wethers. The winter 
stock is, of course, very light, and both cattle and sheep are run 
through the winter and spring on the pastures with the help of 
some hay. The heifers go off fat in June and July as early 
grass-beef, and the wethers after being shorn. Extensive graziers 
have generally pasture farms of different kinds, and shift their 
cattle from one to another, always, of course, to better pasture, 
and finally finish them on the best land. Some graziers grow a 
few acres of turnips, sufficient to finish any late fattening beasts 
they may have, and one grazier in Meath makes it a rule to 
have 100 of his best beasts finished in this way for the English 
Christmas markets. Graziers, for the most part, profess to 
dislike cattle that have been wintered even in yards, in which 
opinion they differ materially from the graziers of 70 years 
ago, who, as Mr. Thompson states, " all agree that store cattle 
are the better of being housed from November until the May 
following." Store cattle, however, that have been well wintered, 
are always easily disposed of in the early fairs. 
The graziers in Meath sometimes run sheep with their 
fattening cattle, but very thinly ; and many graziers are much 
averse to the practice, as sheep eat close, and take the sweetest 
parts of the pasture. Sheep do not, therefore, form so marked a 
feature as cattle in Meath grazing ; and, in fact, a thoroughbred 
Meath herdsman detests sheep, unless, it may be, a few Ballin- 
asloe wethers, which are easily looked after. Ewes give the 
herdsmen too much trouble, and a Meath cattle herdsman is 
seldom a good shepherd. 
The rent of grazing land in Meath, of good quality, runs from 
AOs. to 72s. 6c?. an Irish acre = 24.9. 8r/. to 44a'. ^d. per imperial 
acre — that is, when let on lease for a term of years ; but when 
grazing is let for a limited period, say for a year, the rent will 
exceed 5/. an Irish acre, or 61s. 8rf. an imperial acre. In that 
case, however, the person who takes the land has no herdsman to 
pay, nor is he liable for public burdens, these expenses being 
borne by the person who has set the land. 
Herdsmen are paid mostly in kind, and it is very difiicult to 
estimate the value of their earnings. 1 have heard the wages of 
a head herdsman valued at over 60/. a year, but they are expected 
to keep two lads as assistants, and if these should be their own 
sons the whole of the earnings are kept in the family. For the 
most part they have some young cattle, for which they take grass, 
and, being of a saving disposition, frecjucntly accumulate a con- 
