School: The Vale (An Gleann)
- Location:
- Liataire, Co. an Chabháin
- Teacher: S. Ó Brolcháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1010, Page 440
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- XML “The Potato Crop”
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- (continued from previous page)barn and cut into three or four parts. There is an eye left in every part. It is from that eye that the green shoots appear. The neighbours help each other at the setting of the potatoes.
During the Summer months the potatoes have to be sprayed and moulded. The months for spraying them are July and August. They are sprayed to keep the blight away. The blight is a disease which blackens the leaves on the potatoe stocks. It was the blight that caused the famine in Ireland long ago. When the green shoots appear over the tops of the drills the workman comes along with a plough and goes up and down the valleys between the drills covering the young shoots with clay. In the riges when the young shoots appear over the ground the workman digs an amount of clay in each furrow to cover the green shoots. Then he comes with a shovel and throws the clay out of the furrow on the ridge. In the Autumn he digs the potatoes from the ridges with a spade. He digs them from the drills with a plough. He puts the plough in the middle of the drill at the end and goes up the drill and as he goes along the potatoes will come out.
The workman picks the potatoes from the earth. First he gets a bucket and fills it with potatoes and then he throws them into a bag. The potatoes(continues on next page)
