School: Island Parish
- Location:
- Ballina, Co. Offaly
- Teacher: Seán Ó Móráin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0805, Page 414
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- XML School: Island Parish
- XML Page 414
- XML “The Potato-Crop”
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- Our farm consists of one acre and half an acre is set for potatoes. My father hires a man to till the land. When he has the land tilled he raises the drills. He yokes the horses to a special plough. He puts the point of the plough in the middle of the end of field. The horses begin to walk slowly. The sides of the plough turn up the clay on each side which leaves half of a drill on each side. Then he goes back the other side and turns up the other side. He has one drill made then. He continues like that until all the drills are made.
There are some wooden ploughts still in use on this parish,. The man then cuts the seed. He sorts out the small potatoes and those he uses as the seed. He cuts them in halves leaving an eye in each. Each piece is called a slit. An eye means a little hole in the potato where the stalk grows from. He then shakes lime over them to keep the juicy substance from soaking out of them.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Annie Bracken
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Bohernagrisna, Co. Offaly
