School: Coill-Chéim (roll number 9044)
- Location:
- Calhame, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Seán Mac Cuinneagáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1038, Page 6
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- (continued from previous page)bloom the men of the house sprays them. First they [he] get [gets] a certain quantity of blue-stone and soda. Then they [he] melts them and [and] puts them into a barrel of water. Most of the people have machines for spraying.
The spraying is very good for keeping away the blight. If the potatoes were not sprayed they would be destroyed by the blight and there would be a bad crop.
When the blossoms fall from the potatoes they are ripe. In the Autumn the potatoes are dug from the earth with a spade and they are picked up into buckets and put into pits. Some of the people bring the potatoes home and put them into barns or lofts. When the people are making these pits they level in two ridges together and put the potatoes in a heap on the ground there. Then they put rushes on the top of the potatoes and clay over that to keep the frost from killing them in the winter. The names of the various kinds of potatoes are: "Snowflakes", "Kerrs Pinks", "Arran Crests", "Arran Pilots", and there are plenty of other kinds.
- Informant
- P. Mc Closkey
