School: St. Joseph's, Illies
- Location:
- Illies, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: F. Loughlin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1112, Page 485
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- XML School: St. Joseph's, Illies
- XML Page 485
- XML “Summer Treatment of Potato Crop, Digging and Storing”
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- After the potatoes are set a man graips the tops of the drills to break the lumps and make a fine surface.
Before the potatoes appear above the ground the drills are saddle-harrowed to loosen the soil and to remove weeds then they are grubbed, and a plough is run between the drills to raise fresh earth on them.
When the tops are about three inches above the ground the drills are grubbed and hoed and the weeds are gathered off and put in a heap and burned when dry. + then fresh earth is raised on the drills again by a plough. When the tops are nearly full-grown they get another moulding.
About the beginning of July the tops are sprayed with a mixture of Bluestone + soda and about a month later they get a second spraying. When the tops begin to decay the people begin to dig them.
The potatoes are dug with a spade. A man stands between two drills and he digs out a spadeful of the drill + with the spade, he throws the potatoes that were in the spadeful, farther down the drill(continues on next page)
