Acc.no: PEZPH : 2001.120.420

Identification

Item: Chitting the potatoes ready for planting

Description: Left to right - Elizabeth Marks, Margaret Tregonning, Charlotte Tregonning with three men are chitting potatoes inside a potato store room at Butts Bank Farm, Gulval. The man in the centre is Charlie Tregonning. The prepared potatoes would be laid carefully in the baskets and taken to the fields for planting. The potatoes have been put into a dark, cool space for roots to develop ready for planting. Often two or three roots can be separated in this process which will, of course, increase the yield. Traditionally farmers in West Cornwall planted new potatoes at Easter and then would look forward to gaining the advantage of getting the earliest of early potatoes to market. The main competitors were the Channel Islands. In the twenty first century early crops are overlaid in the fields with polythene to speed up the process.

Collection Name: Harry Penhaul Collection

Condition: Good

Description

Height: 153 mm

Width: 200 mm

Material: Paper

Production

Method: Printed

Date: 1950

Person: Penhaul, Harry

Category: Photography

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