Martin Guerin Ballycar heard this story from his father.

Long ago it was the custom that when May Morning would come every farmer would go and see if any of his crops were gone.The farmer's long ago used to make out that the fairies used to take the good of the crops and put the good of the crops into a garden where there were poor crops. Before May morning they use to put shells of eggs or old boots or shoes in the drills. The reason why the farmers used to put these things on the drills was to prevent the fairies from coming at night and taking away the good of the crops. We have the custom yet in some parts of Ireland to put old shoes and boots in the drills. In some parts of Ireland that old custom is kept up like what the old Irish used to do.