Garden Tools and Implements 33 



square, and a dead furrow in addition in the middle if 

 a parallelogram. After the center of the oblong form is 

 established, measure from this to the long sides and let 

 the first furrow pass through the center and extend on 

 each side of it the distance of the center from the long 

 sides, measured from the short sides. The first furrow 

 will then be the same distance in all its parts from each 

 side of the parallelogram. It will not be necessary, how- 

 ever, to turn the land unless it is covered with manure 

 or other vegetable matter, which it is desirable to incor- 

 porate with the soil. If there is nothing on the land to 

 be turned under, a long bull- tongue, properly used, will 

 deeply stir and sufficiently pulverize the soil. If small 

 seeds are to be planted, a smoothing -harrow or drag 

 should follow the plow. An excellent drag is made by 

 connecting half a dozen logs, six inches in diameter and 

 four feet long, by a trace chain passed through an auger 

 hole at each end. This makes a better drag than one 

 made of 2 x 6 boards rigidly fastened together like 

 weather -boarding, since, being flexible, it conforms to 

 the surface of the soil better. If the land breaks up into 

 clods, it should be rolled and then stirred with a disk or 

 cutaway harrow. The roller presses the clods into the 

 soft surface, so that the harrow cuts them instead of 

 merely rolling them around without crushing them. 



Before planting seed in the garden, the soil should 

 be repeatedly plowed and harrowed, stirring as deeply 

 as possible and pulverizing until no clods as large as a 

 guinea Q^g can be seen. If the garden is not trenched 

 or underdrained, it should be subsoiled as deeply as a 

 strong team can pull the plow. Such treatment enables 



