School: Cnoc Cairn, Imleach Iubhair (roll number 10731)

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1. The Care of Our Farm Animals (continued)

   

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   udder is burned off with flame from a Blessed Candle to prevent the cow getting a "start" in the udder.
   Some cows here will not yield milk unless the milker lilts a song, and this practice is very common here.
   In the horse's stable there was a hay-rack and a feeing-box. A horse-shoe nailed on the door brought good luck (?) The floor was made of cobble-stones, covered with a bed of straw, or furze or heather. Horses were "half-clipped" every 1st of December
   A gamhain groidhe is the local term for a calf that was bulled as a yearling, and then calved as a two-year old - one year before her time.
   A farmer wold fatten eight or nine pigs in the year and kill three at the fall of the year for bacon The meat was cleaned, cut into blocks the length of the butcher's knife, and salted. There were generally eight pieces in a pig. The surplus lean was cut off, and used freshly. This was called "grishkins", and each neighbour was presented with a "grishkin". The meat was salted as follows:- Salt was shaken on the meat. Then a device consisting of a flat board with nails driven trough, and a leather handle, was used to scrub & scratch the meat well so that the salt went well in. This device was called a "Cróg". The meat was then put in a barrel, having first stamped each piece with a red-hot "tip" of a boot

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. agriculture (~2,659)
            1. animal husbandry (~2,587)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Thomas Duhig

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   75

   Address

   Emly, Co. Tipperary