School: Ceathrú na Laithighe (Brownsgrove) (roll number 12138)

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1. Potatoes (continued)

   

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   usually nine cwt. of "special" (an artificial manure) needed for an acre of potatoes or two cwt. of sulphate ammonia mixed with
   two cwt. of potash mixed with three bags of grass manure. The artificial manure is put down on the drills the same day that the potatoes are sown. A man scatters it over the farmyard manure with a bucket. Next the slits are spread over the manures a distance from twelve to fifteen inches between each slit twelve inches for Striped Champions and fifteen inches for Aran Banners. While the slits are being spread a man with a plough and horse is closing the drills that the slits are spread in. The distance of the drills or the width of the dyke where the slits are spread in is usually from twenty four to twenty six inches.
   Sometime after the potatoes have been sown the drills are "knocked". This means that a man with a fork knocks some of the clay off the top
   of the drills. The drills can be knocked with a bush also. An old single harrow without any pins is used and pieces of hawthorn bushes are stuck down through the holes in the harrow where the pins should be. An ass is now tackled to the harrow and the harrow is dragged along the top of the drill thus knocking some of the soil off the top of the drill. A few bushes are also tied together and dragged along the top of the drills by the ass. The potatoes are hoed before they are moulded and they are moulded twice. The first moulding is done after the drills have been knocked and as soon as the gasses are well over the clay and the second moulding is done some time later when the flowers are beginning to come

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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. potatoes (~2,701)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Mc Gagh

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Beagh (Browne), Co. Galway

   Informant

   Patrick Mc Gagh

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   50

   Address

   Beagh (Browne), Co. Galway