APRIL is a busy month in farm and garden. Preparation-tillage is in order, if the ground is not too moist. Too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance of thorough preparation of the soil before the planting begins. What you neglect in this line cannot be made up later in the season, and you will suffer in field and pocket. Be sure that your soil is neither too wet nor too dry when you begin operations, and when you are through, be just as sure that it is thoroughly pulverized and fertilized, so that it can retain moisture and afford the right bed for the tender seeds. Then plant all the hardy crops as directed in the chapters on crop raising in this book. Get your neighbors to co-operate with you in clearing out neglected roadside corners and in destroying weeds. It will pay. All the crops in the neighborhood will profit from this action. Don’t turn the stock out to feed until the grass has made some growth. You don’t want the roots gnawed out. * * * * * Even in the northernmost parts of the New England States, much of the out-door planting is done in early MAY and the rest a little later in the month. Now is when you begin to realize the value of having done all your preparation work early. Planting potatoes, peas, beets, cabbages, turnips, to say nothing of beans, corn, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, etc., will take all your time every day that is not spent in cultivating and using the wheel-hoe. Besides, your strawberry beds will be needing a good deal of attention, and your chicken-run should have its location changed for awhile. * * * * * There are no idle times for the intelligent farmer, but the beautiful month of JUNE is generally the busiest. Indeed, it is often so busy that the farmer does not have time to know how beautiful it is. But you can have time. Arrange your work; drive it instead of letting it drive you, and you will be surprised how much time you have to look up and to realize that it is a glorious thing just to be alive. But this cannot be if you have neglected your work from month to month. The smell of ripening strawberries, of new-mown hay fill the air before this month is gone; the sky is the bluest, the grass the greenest, the trees the freshest of any month in the year. Don’t lose those delights without having known that they have come. Cultivate yourself as well as your soil, and life will be better worth the living. * * * * * JULY is the real haying month in the Northern States. There are scores of things to do. Many of the fall-crop vegetables are to be sown this month, and the ground must be put in good condition as soon as the early crop is off. But busy as you are, it is good to take a day off occasionally and see what your neighbor is doing. Perhaps he has some scheme by which he has forced his crop ahead of yours. If so, compare notes and learn what you can. * * * * *