School: St. Joseph's, Illies
- Location:
- Illies, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: F. Loughlin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1112, Page 483
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- XML “Sowing Potatoes”
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- Sowing potatoes
The local people help one another in sowing potatoes. most farmers in this locality have only one horse and before the spring's work begins two farmers agree to work together for the season and they are called "Comrades." One of them lends his horse to the other and this man ploughs with the two horses for a week and feeds them for that time, except at night when his neighbours horse is at home. If the neighbours horse is a young one, the owner goes with him to the other man and remains with him for the week.
At the end of the week the other man gets the horses and ploughs with them for a week and so on till both men have all ploughed.
When preparing the ground for the potatoes they use the same two horses and where the drills are opened each man gets his horse + cart + they put out the manure + spread it for one of them till they have in his potatoes, then the other man gets in his potatoes with the help of his "Comrade."
During the summer the two men work together at the further cultivation of the potatoes, such as grubbing + moulding.
If a poor person has no horse he invites all his neighbours who have horses for a days ploughing(continues on next page)
