School: Garryross
- Location:
- Garryross, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: Bean Uí Eochagáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0995, Page 402
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- XML School: Garryross
- XML Page 402
- XML “The Potato Crop”
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- Potatoes are largely grown in this district. The farms are all small from 5 to 50 acres, but every little farmer plants lots of potatoes, because they depend mostly on the potato crop for feeding pigs and fowl. From 1/2 acre to 3 acres is the usual thing. The amount scarcely ever varies. The ground is ploughed by the farmer or his sons. Every little farmer owns a horse or pony. Two farmers care for the ploughing and sowing. The potatoes are put in in both ridges and drills. Ridges are supposed to be best for the land around here, and if time is available the farmers put their crop in in ridges. The ridges are shovelled, the furrows being cut with a pair of horses and a plough.
Wooden spades and ploughs are now extinct. An odd man remembers the wooden ploughs, but no one remembers wooden spades. The spades are now bought in shops but long ago blacksmiths made them.
When the field for the crop is ploughed 'tis then harrowed out flat. The ridges are next marked with one horse and a plough. The manure is then put out in heaps each a few yards apart. The furrows are cut with a pair of horses and a plough. Then the manure is spread, the cut potatoes dropped and the ridges planted up with a shovel.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Eileen Ní hAilpín
- Gender
- Female
