School: Tobar Pádraig (roll number 4764)

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1. The Potato Crop

   

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   My father sows potatoes every year. He sows about half an acre of them. Some years the potatoes are not plentiful. My Uncle prepares the ground because he is a farmer. A few weeks before we sow them my father draws back manure to my grandmother's house. It is on drills we sow them. We use a plough in our garden because we sow half an acre and my grandmother sows half an acre.

   Drills are opened two feet apart. They are very nice to look at when done by a good workman. Next the "sciolláin" are laid down in the bottom of the furrow 12 inches apart. Next the manure is spread over the sets taking care not to stir the sets out of their places. In a small garden the seeds are covered by splitting the drills. In this way new drills are formed. This work can also be done by the plough which is much faster and is always used when an acre or more of potatoes are sown. The following kinds of potatoes are grown in this parish:- Epicures, May Queen, Kerr pinks, Irish Champions, British Queens, Chieftains and Aran Banners.

   I often heard my father and mother saying, wooden ploughs were used years ago, and that most of the farmers made them themselves. Years ago starch was made from potatoes and is made up to the present day. Long ago tea was not plentiful and so the people had to live on potatoes. In 1847 during the great famine all the potatoes failed to grow.

   When the potatoes appear above ground we must be careful of them. A vulgar name for potatoes is "spuds". Potatoes were first brought into Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh, hundreds of years ago. The Irish people did not know how to cook them at that time.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. gníomhaíochtaí
      1. gníomhaíochtaí eacnamaíocha
         1. talmhaíocht (~2,659)
            1. prátaí (~2,701)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Stephen Murray

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Tobar Phádraig, Co. Luimnigh