If you go into the Japanese countryside, you will probably see water in the rice fields now. Golden Week is the time to plant rice. Farmers put the water into the fields first. Then, they plow the fields. They get on tractors and dig up the soil so that it isn’t hard. This helps air get into the soil. Plowing also helps to stop weeds from growing. When the fields are ready, farmers plant the rice using the tractors. These days, farming is easier because there are machines that do the hard work. One farmer can do everything alone. Before machines, however, farmers had to do everything by hand. It took a lot of time, and one farmer couldn’t do it alone. They worked together with their families and other farmers to finish the planting quickly.  (136 words)

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