HOW 
79 TO WORK 
Examine it in 20 minutes, and if there is any 
acid present, the paper will have turned red. 
This test is still being experimented on.* 
If your land is in proper condition to manure, 
use about twenty-five heaping wagon-loads to 
the acre before plowing in the early spring, and 
then use a disc or cutaway harrow until you have 
made the soil as fine as dust. Then you have 
good planting conditions. 
How much of the discontent with farming and 
gardening may have arisen from the old method 
of planting in beds, it is hard to say. But 
that cause for dissatisfaction no longer exists. 
We now plant in long rows far enough apart to 
allow the use of the wheel-hoe in cultivating 
the large and small plants alike, without having 
to readjust the blades. The wheel-hoe is one 
of the most useful of farm tools, and has done 
away with most of the back-breaking work of 
hand-weeding. 
We cannot use the wheel-hoe on beds; that 
is why we now plant in rows. If your plot 
allows rows one hundred feet long, you will find 
one row of any vegetable enough for family use. 
Let them run crosswise of the slope of the ground 
* Note.—Another way is to mix a little soil with rain water, 
stir it well, and put the litmus paper in it. Pure rain water is 
the only water that can be successfully used in this test. 
