School: St. Joseph's, Illies
- Location:
- Illies, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: F. Loughlin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1112, Page 486
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- XML School: St. Joseph's, Illies
- XML Page 486
- XML “Summer Treatment of Potato Crop, Digging and Storing”
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- (continued from previous page)then with the back of the spade he breaks all the lumps till he is satisfied there are no potatoes in any of them. He smotthes the ground in front of where he is digging and he digs a spadeful from the other drill + treats it as he did the other + so on.
The potatoes are left lying on the ground till the afternoon, and then the bigger children gather up the good sound big ones + put them in bags, and before night these bags are brought to a pit in which the potatoes are put.
The small potatoes and diseased ones are gathered + put in bags and brought home + put in a barn and are used for feeding fowls and pigs.
A bed, about half a foot deep +2 wide, is made in the ground + into this the potatoes are put in a heap, then they are covered with either rushes or "scraws" and left for a few days till they dry. Then they are covered all over with clay to a depth of about half a foot.
To prevent the potatoes heating some people leave holes in the sides or tops of the heap (+ these holes are filled with straw) to allow air to enter and gas to escape.
The potatoes used locally are:-
Kerrs Pinks; Arran Banner; Arran Victory;(continues on next page)
