THE SECRETAKY'S PORTFOLIO. 263 



into England from France is the product of the potato. Throughout Germany 

 the same uses are common. In Poland the manufacture of spirits from the 

 potato is a most extensive trade. "Settin brandy," well known in commerce, 

 is largely imported into England and is sent from thence to many of her 

 foreign possessions as the product of the grape, and is placed on many a table 

 of England as the same, while the fair ladies of our country perfume them- 

 selves with the spirit of potato under the designation eau de Cologne. But 

 there are other uses which this esculent is turned to abroad. After extracting 

 the farina the pulp is manufactured into ornamental articles, such as picture 

 frames, snuff boxes and several descriptions of toys, and the water that runs 

 from it in the process of manufacture is a most valuable scourer. For per- 

 fectly cleansing woolens and such like articles it is the housewife's panacea, 

 and if the washerwoman happens to have chilblains she becomes cured fey the 

 operation. 



SCHOOL HORTICULTURE. 



SCHOOL GROUNDS. 



The editor of the Indiana Farmer sounds a clear note to follow. This is 

 how it sounds: 



The nakedness of farm homes, the utter absence of the ornamental, too often 

 seen even yet, tells of a sad defect in early education. Begin with the school- 

 house and its attached grounds. Make these beautiful and you will not only 

 create an attachment to the school, but the children will soon demand that 

 their homes shall be beautiful as well as the scliool grounds. 



With feelings akin to disgust we recall from the fading pages of memory the 

 old school-house in the woods, with its rude benches and its naked walls of 

 unhewn logs — but the grand old forest spread its boughs above and cast on the 

 earth a gorgeous carpet of sunshine and shade in patterns of ever-varying 

 beauty. Even the wintry storms that howled through these leafless branches 

 stirred up a feeling of the sublime, nearly akin to the beautiful. Let our 

 school surroundings be such as to cultivate the aesthetic sense — the love of the 

 beautiful. In doing this we may still preserve a regard for the useful. 



The lawn in front of the school-house should be at least forty feet wide, and 

 inclosed by a neat and substantial fence. From the gate to the door a paved 

 or graveled walk should be made wide enough to accommodate a double file of 

 scholars. This should be bordered on either side by irregular beds of hardy 

 flowers. Clumps of roses and other flowering shrubs should be scattered 

 through the grounds, with here and there a native forest tree — a sugar maple, 

 an ash, a walnut, and a catalpa. Around the whole, and near the inclosing 

 fence, should be set a row of liardy evergreens, both for ornament and for a 

 winter screen. The hemlock, the Scotch or Austrian pine, or red cedar, will 



