Hand After The Plough example essay topic

I interviewed Neddy; he grew up in Gurthmore Ros more Cashel Co. Tipperary in the 1950's. He lived with his brother and two cousins who were orphaned when they were young in a two storey slate house. The house was relatively big for the time.

His parents were farmers and had 120 acres of land some of which was bag land where turf was cut. There were horses, sheep, cows, pigs, chicken, ducks and geese on the farm. They kept 19 milking shorthorn cows which were hand milked twice a day, the milk was taken to the creamery in Turaheen which was five miles away it would take around 40 minutes. The milk was transported by horse and cart.

The horses they kept were Clydesdale and Irish Draft. The price of milk was 20 pence per gallon. On average a cow could be milked in five minutes and the average cow would give five gallons. They also kept 15 ewes and three to four pigs which were killed threw out the year; the meat was cured in salt and brown sugar for 3 weeks. Hens were kept for eggs and the geese and ducks were also killed threw out the year.

Neddy went to Turaheen National School. His education finished after sixth class. He left school to work on the farm at home. He played hurling for Ross more and went hunting with his friends they used shotguns and terriers; they sometimes went to a "dance" in the hall in Upper church. There was much work to be done on the farm as in those days there was almost no machinery, everything was done by hand. Turf and wood was fuel for the fire, the turf was cut from there own bog, and wood was cut with a "ty sic saw", it took two people to operate this saw one at either side.

Most of the food consumed in the household was home grown. Turnips, carrots, potatoes (spuds), barley and cabbage were produced at home. Sowing these crops took a lot of hard work. The vegetables were grown on the garden with was a plot of 3 acres of good soil near to the house. The spuds were the most important crop first of all the ground was ploughed with a Double Howard Plough which was pulled by a single horse preferably an Irish Draft as they would be better on there feet than a Clydesdale which could damage the drills with there feet. Then the "scillans" of the spuds were put in the drill an equal distance apart.

These are like the seeds. The drills were then closed again by the plough and a "shake" of manure was put over the "scillans". The drills would now be "moulded" this meant the horse would pull u large flat kind of bolder this was just to flatten off the drills altogether. When the stem of the plant would appear they were sprayed with two gallons of "bluestone" (copper sulphate) and washing soda.

This combination kept the blight off and was distributed with a "budget" which was a pump action spray. The drills would have to be constantly hoed to keep weeds away. When the spuds were ready for harvesting the plough would then open the drill again to get at the spuds below. They were then picked by hand. Later there was a "potato picker" which was pulled by a horse and the rotation of the wheels would turn arms at the back which would throw the spuds out of the drills and all you had to do then was pick them up. The spuds were then stored under some old straw outdoors for protection as sheds were not so plentiful then.

Turnips were picked by hand after the plough had opened the drill. Turnips were also used as feed for the animals and a "pul per" mixed turnips and mangles together as feed for the animals. Cabbage and carrots were picked by hand. The barley was cut with a "bamford mower" and gathered with a "fifteen tooth gatherer" the neighbours would join together to "thrash" the barley, this was to separate the oats from the straw. Hay was also cut using a "bamford mower" and gathered using a "fifteen tooth gatherer". On weekdays Neddy usually got up at a quarter to seven and in summer he sometimes worked until 12 that night if the weather was good.

On Sundays he got up at 6 in the morning to have the cows milked and the milk gone to the creamery and to be back in time for mass at 10. Breakfast wasn't eaten until after mass as you had to fast before hand. There was a fair in Thurles on the first Tuesday of every month. This is where you sold your animals if you were selling them.

The fair would be starting at 6 am so he would have to leave home around 4 am as you would be walking to Thurles with the animal you were selling, if you were selling an in calf heifer you would have to leave at 12 that night as she would be delicate and you couldn't rush her. You had to do your own dealing in those days so you did your best to find a buyer. Cattle weren't registered in those days and cattle were sometimes stolen. The fair would be over around 12 midday. There was no vets in those days and if an animal got sick you either Penicillin or a mug of Poteen and hoped for the best. Poteen was illegal but easily obtained.

Neddy said that if he ever had a cold or a chill he'd take a shot of Poteen and go to bed and he wouldn't wake up until 12 the next day. At Christmas they had a special dinner. It was a three course meal of soup, turkey and vegetables and wine, and rice or cornflour for desert..