Year: 1878

POTATO PLANTING.
sAn item in Il French journal, sent us by
Mr., Chrystie, relates to potato planting. and
we translate it, with slight condensation, as
follows


1T appears, as we read in the Unirers,
that to the present day we have never learn
ed how to plant potatoes. We cut them in
two and put them into deep trenches, and
fill in the earth over them. Ndav the potato,
being originally from Peru, needs warmth
and air. 10 bury it in Il cold, damp grave
Of this kind, says Nj. Calloigne, is to arrest
its flight. Put it simply on soil deeply
plowed or spaded-say in 20-inch squares if
the potato is cut, or in 30-inch squares if I'M
cut-and cover it lightly with the hoe. 1t
will soon pierce this slight covering, which
both shelters and fertilizes it, ana can then
be hilled' up as necessary. By following
this method; by preventing sprouting until
planting time, and then plunging it into a
limewash to destroy morbid principles we
may prevent the development of the disease





those seen before the invasion Of the rot
say eight or nine tons per acre"


A GARDEN.


Every man.. however limited his means.
should contriye to have and cultivate a gar
| den. There are three strong reasons for it,:


I. Working in a garden is highly condu-
Give to health. The exercise is gentle, it is
united with amusement, and by it both the
body and the spirits are inyigorated There
is something in the odor of the earth that
strengthens the whole system.


Let the sedentary man take up the prun-
ing knife and spend an hour OF the deWy
morning amongst his vines, or the spade.
hoe or rake and prepare or work over his
asparagus, lettuce or radish beds, and he will
thus give tone and vigor to his body and his
mind for the severe studies of his desk. The
teacher will teach all the better, the minister
will preach all the better for the mind eXer-
else which the garden gives.


For this natural employment of the bones
and muscles of the system an hour or tWo's
practice in the gymnasium is but nlser-
able Substitute. since the health-impartlng
exhalations from the ground, as well as the
interest and variety, are wanting.


g The garden is a teacher. There Ma
ture is ever at work, producing her most
beautiful forms and transformations. No
man can witness attentively the termination
OF the seed, the uprising of the blade, the
IunfoldincsDf the flower, the maturing OF the
truit, without at the same time becoming
wiser, nobler, better


The vegetable and the mineral kingdoms
here meet and work together. 70 the Curl
Gus every step in this working offers some
thing fresh for meditation. Why, for in
stance, does the plumula ascend? Why
does it incline toward the sun? Why does
it assume this or that tint? Why does the
SAP arisein it? Why does this plant take to
this kind of nutriment, and another to that:
WHY is a thorn given to this vegetable. an
4 acrid Juice to this, ard honey to that? Why
I does the dandelion shoot forth in the spring
and the aster in the autumn? Why IS this
leaf obicular, this heart-shaped, this finger
shaped, this needle-shaped? WHY'S this
plant medicinal, this poisonous? Why is
this flower fragrant, this scentless? and q
thousand other curious questions constantly
arise TO awaken thought and to turlrit to
tho .fuuence of the inventive power othtle