School: Clochar na Trócaire, Leac an Anfa, Cathair na Mart
- Location:
- Leckanvy, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: An tSr. Treasa
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0138, Page 101
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- All the small farmers of this district sow potatoes each year. They plant one or two acres - their holdings are very small from 4-7 acres -
Sowing the Crop. Most farmers plant in ridges and the work of preparation is done with the spade or bighe[?] as it is locally called. I have only seen one farmer here using a plough. When potatoes are sown in lea-land the farmer scores the land in the following way. He gets some thatching twine and two sticks. He fastens one stick in the ground and winds some of the twine round it securing it carefully. Then he takes the rest of the twine and draws it along whatever length he require his ridge making sure to keep it straight. He fastens the second stick to the ground, winding the twine round it. Next he turns up a green scraw straight along by the scoring line, this is called the póidín[?]. When the póidín is complete the scoring line is raised and changed about 1 1/2 feet, another póidín is dug now and the space between the two is called the S or dyke. The line is changed again leaving a space of four feet this time, this is usually the width of the ridge. Two more póisdín 1 1/2' apart are dug as before, another ridge then, and so on until the required number is there(continues on next page)
