The drill-rows are more regular; the hedges are clipped; the weeds no longer hide the crops, as they sometimes do in the far west.

The country is also adorned with copses, woods, and avenues.

A new crop begins to appear in the fields--a crop almost peculiar to the neighbourhood of Belfast.

It is a plant with a very slender erect green stem, which, when full grown, branches at the top into a loose corymb of blue flowers.

This is the flax plant, the cultivation and preparation of which gives employment to a great number of persons, and is to a large extent the foundation of the prosperity of Belfast.
The first appearance of the linen industry of Ireland, as we approach Belfast from the west, is observed at Portadown.