School: Oileán Ciarraí (roll number 10956)
- Location:
- Castleisland, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Tadhg Ó Céin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0446, Page 503
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- XML School: Oileán Ciarraí
- XML Page 503
- XML “The Potato Crop”
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- Most farmers when setting the potatoes used to plant two acres every year. The ground is ploughed first, then manure is spread on it, next the seed is set. The best potatoes to set are the Irish Queens and the Champions. The potatoes are mostly sown in ridges, and these are made with a spade or plough. Mostly all the spades are bought in shops. Most people in the country help each other, when they are setting the potatoes, as they have what they call a "meiriol" spreading them. The potatoes are dug out with a spade, and when they are dug out, the children and women pick them and put them into heaps. Then the men dig a pit and they put the potatoes into the pit, then mostly all the small potatoes are kept for the pigs and fowl. When the potatoes are half grown, they rise to them and spray them with bluestone twice a year to prevent blight. They also put lime on them to prevent the snails from eating them. The potato is a very important crop. When it fails it is a very big loss to farmers. They are always set in Spring, anybody who wants early potatoes sets them early in February, to have them for the(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Cornelius Hewitt
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Main Street, Co. Kerry
- Informant
- Con Hewitt
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 39
- Address
- Main Street, Co. Kerry
