240 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



soil of a clayey or adhesive character, after the spade has been 

 thrust in, instead of prying the spadeful loose by prying down on 

 the handle, the laborer should thrust the handle from him, forward, 

 so as to loosen the spadeful. This operation will not require 

 half the force for spading that is necessary where the spading is 

 all done by prying down on the handle to loosen the spadeful. 

 A skillful spader will wear out his spade ; but an awkward Jona 

 than will break and stave up twice as many spades, and will not 

 perform half the amount of labor, as he who handles a spade with 

 a little skill. In spading in ditches where the soil is quite wet, 

 ninety -nine diggers in one hundred will put their whole weight 

 on a spade-handle in order to pry a spadeful loose ; whereas, if 

 they would loosen it by thrusting the handle forward, it would 

 not require one-fourth the strength, and it would be loosened in 

 less than half the time. By prying down on the handle to loosen 

 a spadeful where there is water, a spadeful is not easily pryed 

 loose, because in separating the spadeful from the unbroken 

 ground there is a tendency to form a vacuum ; but by thrusting 

 the handle forward enough to loosen the spadeful, air and water 

 will find their way behind the spadeful, and it may be easily 

 lifted from its place with the spade. Remember, that a spade is 

 neither a crowbar nor handspike. If the edge and blade of a 

 spade are made of steel, as they should be, and polished on the 

 grindstone, and the edge ground up sharp, if the edge has a good 

 temper, so hard that it will not batter when it touches stone, nor 

 break when thrust on a flint, it will not require much force to 

 drive in the spade when spading. But .when the edge is all bat 

 tered up, and towards one-fourth of an inch thick, spading is a 

 very laborious operation. A good steel spade should never be 

 allowed to become rusty, nor to be exposed to heavy rains, as 

 bent handles in spades are quite apt to spring straight when left 

 in wet places. A few drops of oil will keep the blade from rust 

 ing, and it will not require half as much time to clean a spade 

 and oil it and put it under cover as it will to scour it fit for use 

 after it has become rusty. If the edge of a steel spade is too soft, 

 it may easily be tempered again as hard as may be desired, by 



