School: Coill an tSrotha (roll number 5352)

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1. Potato Crop

   

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   The acreage under potatoes on our farm is one acre. First my father prepared the ground. If the ground is [?] he puts out the farmyard manure in a straight line for whatever length he desired and about two feet in width. The woman of the house prepares the seed. When the potato is of a fair size it is left in its round shape but if the potato is a large one it is cut into several seed leaving three eye in each one. Then the seed is laid down on the manure. After this he copes the furrow which is the space left between the lines of the manure.
   This he does with a loy of spade which is made in blones. My father then sets the furrow by putting up a little clay on the seed. In the end of May when the stalks are to be seen over the ground he weeds them and takes good care to shovel up the clay on stalks and thus cover them to save them from the frost which comes about the middle of June. In July he sprays the stalks with blue stone and washing soda in the proportion of eight pounds of blue stone ten pounds of washing soda to the forty gallons of water. This is applied by means of a spraying machine of heather. Of the two the machine is the better. My father sprays the stalks twice for fear the blight would appear which would burn them and the potatoes would stop growing.
   We generally gave our dinners of the new potatoes on the second Sunday of July and thence forward we dig them daily. During the month of October all potatoes are dug.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. agriculture (~2,659)
            1. potatoes (~2,701)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   James Mc Morrow

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   76

   Address

   Ardvarney, Co. Leitrim