School: Acontagh, Tullamore
- Location:
- Acantha, Co. Offaly
- Teacher: Muriel Rogan
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0804, Page 137
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- XML School: Acontagh, Tullamore
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- XML “The Potato Crop”
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- (continued from previous page)in three or four pieces, with an eye in each piece. Some people in this district (Durrow) help one another by sending their children to drop the seed, and sometimes one farmer would go for a day to the other to open drills.
Potatoes have to be grubbed and moulded twice during the summer months. If there are many weeds in the drills they have to be pulled out of them after the first grubbing. Some local farmers spray the potatoes to keep them from getting blight. If the farmer is going to spray them twice he does it in June and July. If only once he does it in July.
Whena farmer has two or three acres of potatoes he takes them out with a potatoe-digger or spuddler. The spuddler throws the potatoes out of the drills with forks. It is drawn by two and sometimes three horses. When the potatoes are thrown out of the drills the farmer's children and workmen pick them into cradles. When a cradle is filled two men take it and empty it into a cart. Most farmers store the potatoes(continues on next page)
