School: Knockanargan, Dunlavin

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1. The Potato Crop (continued)

   

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   Potatoes were grown without manure on the hillsides before the famine but they could not be grown since.
   The ridges and drills are there still but they are covered with grass and hill-ferns.
   The potatoes are stored in pits.
   Before they are dug a pit is made.
   The depth of which is four inches.
   The width of it is fourteen inches and the length of it varies from four to fourteen inches.
   The clay shovelled up is put by the side to cover the potatoes when they are dug.
   Then they are picked into sod baskets made of sally or hazel rods.
   Some of these are made locally and others are bought in the shops.
   Then the potatoes are piled up in the pit and covered with dry hill-ferns as they would rot if these were not put on them to prevent the clay from reaching them.
   When they are well with fers the clay is put on the latter and well clamped into them with a shovel.

   (continues on next page)

   

   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

   Susan Case

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Brittas, Co. Wicklow