School: Wilkinstown (roll number 1917)

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1. The Potato Crop (continued)

   

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   When the potatoes are growing during the summer they have to be sprayed to prevent them from being killed with the "blight." They are sprayed with blue-stone to keep them safe. When Autumn comes and the potatoes get ripe they are taken out of the ground. They are generally dug with a spade but sometimes they are "ploughed out" with a plough. They can be taken out of the ground much more quickly by this means than by digging them. The children generally pick the potatoes from the earth with their hands.
   When the potatoes are picked they are gathered into pits in the fields but later on they are taken into the farm-yard and made into a couple of large pits. Before the potatoes are taken in there is a pit dug about two feet deep and about two yards wide and about four or five yards long. Then the potatoes are drawn into the yard and emptied into the pit. Then they are covered over with straw first and then there is a heavy covering of clay put over that.
   The names given to the various kinds of potatoes are:- Shamrocks, Kerr's Pinks, Presidents, British Queens, and Aran Victors. The Presidents are a new kind of and they grow very well in this soil.
   Long ago the people had no starch and they used to get starch from the potatoes. They used to peel the potatoes and boil them and

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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

   Collector

   Patricia Reilly

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Demailestown, Co. Meath

   Informant

   Hugh Reilly

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Demailestown, Co. Meath