School: Melview, Longford (roll number 7518)
- Location:
- Knockawalky, Co. Longford
- Teacher: P. Ó Tuathaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0757, Page 184
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- XML “Setting the Potatoes”
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- A method of preparing ridges for planting or setting potatoes is by the loy. This tool is made of iron and steel laid at at the point attached to an ash handle by the wings which are clinched into the thick lower part of the handle after being heated and while pliable. The man who desired to be a loyman that is an expert strong worker and having speed, got his three pounds of iron and one pound of steel and brought it to the blacksmith who then shaped the loy iron long and narrow with the proper lift for turning over the sod. The handle, which is called the "tree" and the steps on this are all fashioned from the one piece of timber of seasoned ash. The loy would when finished be about nine pounds. The workers dig long sods with great speed turning them on each side to form the potato ridge which they fill in the centre with loose clay from the furrow. Two men used to dig a rood per day Irish, with their loys or eight men an Irish acre. The manure had been put on the day before the digging and the men would measure four feet across the grass sod and raise a little mark to mark the width. Then they would nick or cut it with the tops of their loys from end to end of the field using the raised marks as a(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Seamus Mc Manus
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Aghadegnan, Co. Longford
