School: Ballymore (B.) (roll number 7443)
- Location:
- Ballymore, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: P.J. Cooney
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0743, Page 280
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- XML School: Ballymore (B.)
- XML Page 280
- XML “Flax-Growing”
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- Long ago when people were going to sow flax they dug the land with a spade. Then they broke the lumps with a grape and they made drills with a shovel. Then they put turf mould in the drill and closed them. A woman got an iron bar called a drag and she made a hole every inch along the drill. She got the flax seed and put two seeds in each hole. A man got turf mould and put it on top of the seed. When it would be about a quarter of an inch over the ground they would put turf mould mixed with clay on it and moulde them.Early in the harvest the women would begin to pull it. Every woman had her own drill when it all was pulled they made sheaves of it and made stooks with three sheaves. After it had been a forthnight or three weeks in stooks they made a heap of it in the middle of the field. When it was well scorched with the sun they had schutchen and they beat the sheaves against it. They had a sheet on the ground and the seed fell on it.After that they brought it to the bog. They brought the straw of the flax and and shook it out on the land and let it dry. When it was dry the women gathered it up and brought it into the room and then they got(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Thomas Grant
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- Joseph Quinn
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 75
- Address
- Shinglis, Co. Westmeath
