School: Abbeyleix (South) (roll number 14260)
- Location:
- Abbeyleix, Co. Laois
- Teacher: Mrs Galbraith
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0831, Page 335
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- XML “The Care Which is Taken of Potatoes”
- XML “Lifting the Potatoes”
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- (continued from previous page)When the young potatoes begin to grow the farmer has to protect them from rooks by putting up scare crows and by shooting some of them. They also have to protect them from rats by trapping or poisoning them.
In the month of June the potatoes are generally sprayed with blue-stone to protect the blight from harming them. If the potatoes are sown in a garden they are moulded with a spade and the drills are cleaned with a hoe or a scuffle. Sometimes the potatoes are not sprayed but they do not grow as big as they would if they had been sprayed.
- The potatoes are lifted in the month of October. They are lifted with a machine called a potato-digger now. About six or more pickers get out with "skibs". The man who owns the digger generally drives the horses. When he has one drill dug, he waits till
