This photograph was taken in Sconser on Skye in the 1880s.
The potato became popular as a crop in the Highlands during the 18th century. It produced a better yield than most other crops and, by 1800, potatoes made up about 80% of the Highland diet. The failure of the potato crop in the 1840s due to blight led to many people emigrating to avoid starvation.
Potatoes were often planted in lazy-beds. These were raised beds of seaweed manure, compost and soil about a metre in width. Lazy-beds provided a small plot of fertile soil and potatoes grew well in them. Potatoes were such an important crop that children would often be absent from school to help with planting and harvesting them.
Click to enlarge the image, read the text then answer the following questions.
Questions
- Why had potatoes become so important in the diet by the 1800s?
- What tool is the crofter using to till the ground?
- Who is doing the planting?
- Part of the potato crop had to be kept over for the following Spring. Why?
- What were 'lazy beds'?