School: Tyrrellspass (2) (roll number 13743)

Location:
Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath
Teacher:
Mrs Payne
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0731, Page 213

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0731, Page 213

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  3. XML “Digging Out Potatoes”

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    straws is put on to keep the clay coming from the scraws, from going down through them for if it did the potatoes would start growing.
    A wise farmer digs a pit on high ground and not too deep or wide for if he did not do that the rain would get at them.
    There are three ways to dig potatoes by spade, or fork, plough and potatoes digger. The spade or fork is used for digging potatoes which are sown in a garden. The plough is a quicker means of digging but it does not dig out all the potatoes.
    Lots of farmers use potato diggers which are drawn by two horses and there are three wheels on it, two of them on the outside of it and the other one is in the middle and it throws out the potates. A lot of pickers stand around with buckets and the minute the digger passed by, the pickers rush in and pick up all the potatoes. If they leave any on the ground the next time the digger comes round it will cover them with the next drill of potatoes.
    Maltida Fair, age 12.
    Belvedere Orphanage,
    Tyrrells,Pass.
    29th.11.1938
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. activities
      1. economic activities
        1. agriculture (~2,659)
          1. potatoes (~2,701)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Matilda Fair
    Gender
    Female
    Age
    12
    Address
    Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath