School: Gortloney (roll number 11978)
- Location:
- Gortloney, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Eoghan de Buitléir
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0716, Page 167
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- XML School: Gortloney
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- XML “The Potato Crop”
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- The Potato cropWritten by; Kathleen Chatten, Lough Crew, 10th Feb. '38.In olden times the people lived mostly on potatoes, a crop they produced themselves with great hardship, because both men and women had to till the land and get in and out the crop by themselves. As in those days the people in most parts of our country were very poor and had neither ploughs nor horses to till the land, they had to start out themselves in the early morning sometimes before the dawn and with very roughly made tools.
They had to dig the ground with a spade like this: (Diagram on page) and it was called the laide and when the ground was prepared they had to carry the manure in bags and baskets on their backs.
They planted the potatoes in ridges, and in those days even after all their hard work they sometimes reaped a very poor crop. But what they could save they put into pits in their little gardens to save them for their winter food.
- Collector
- Kathleen Chatten
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Loughcrew, Co. Meath
