Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (1.1968/1971)

Fig. 1. Mr. John R. Dolan, Coppanagh, Glengavlin, setting up ridges for potatoes, March 1966. Completed
ridges to left, manure laid ready at right.

John R. Dolan, Coppanagh, Glengavlin, legt Damme fiir Kartoffel an, Marz 1966. Fertige Damme links,
bereitliegender Danger rechts.

SPADE TILLAGE

in South-West Ulster and North Connacht

Alan Gailey

Some aspects of an old agricultural economy have
survived until the present time in south-west Ul-
ster and neighbouring parts of north Connacht,
especially in the counties of Fermanagh, Cavan
and Leitrim, in the island of Ireland. Some farmers
of tiny holdings still till their ground with the
spade in preparation for planting potatoes, using
methods which have remained unaltered for at
least a century and a half. The basic technique of

potato cultivation in ridges, sometimes referred to
as lazy beds, remains similar throughout the area,
but there is some variation in the kind of spade
used. This district lies astride the boundary
between communities using one-sided and two-
sided spades (Gailey fig. lb, 36). Thus the spades
used in west county Fermanagh have footrests
on each shoulder on opposite sides of a centrally
set shaft. In neighbouring parts of north Cavan