FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
381 
A Beautiful Altenbiirger Peasant Girl. —Our informant 
told us of a millionaire peasant, whose only daughter 
had alle mogliche stunden , “ all possible lessons/’ I 
asked whether she continued to assist in the work of 
the farm. He said, “She does not do the field work, 
nor feed the cattle (two ordinary employments of the 
female peasantry), but natiirlicL, she looks after the 
cows, and helps to make the butter, and so on.” Hap¬ 
py, happy people, who can share in the progress, and 
even the refinements and luxuries of other classes, 
Without a desire to quit their own! It is that desire, 
and not a taste for the comforts, or even the elegancies 
of life, which makes society sick and restless, and 
leads every man to regard his own position with envy 
and discontent. We have seen the young ladies who 
scorned the cows, and aspired to pass the magic but 
indefinable line which separates the farmers from the 
“ country families ” in English provincial life. But 
here—fortunately for the bauernstand , and most unfor¬ 
tunately for the add (nobility and gentry), that line is 
far too accurately and inflexibly defined to yield to the 
assault of beauty, wealth, and “ accomplishments ” 
united. In the sphere in which she is born, the bauer- 
madchen will marry and will die. And why, I pray 
ou, might not a girl born under so benign a star as to 
ave a healthful, active employment, and a determined 
sphere of duty, combined with all the leisure and 
opportunity that wealth and retirement can give, why 
might she not read Plato, or study Newton, if her taste 
led her so high—or pour out the abundance of her 
young soul in music or painting? Are we never to 
get beyond the age of pedants and dilettanti ?—of 
blue stockings and “exceptional” women, who look 
down on the useful occupations of life, and scorn duties 
they have neither sense to appreciate nor virtue to 
fulfil? These are the monstrosities which grow out 
of a normal condition of ignorance and futility, and 
will disappear with that. At present, the whole cur¬ 
rent of prejudice is so strong against such a combina¬ 
tion of the useful and the elegant, the simple and the 
luxurious, that there is little chance of one young 
woman in such a position failing to be spoiled 
for both characters; but there is no substantial 
reason why she should not be as simply earnest 
about her work as one of Homer’s princesses, and 
yet give her leisure to noble and refined pursuits.— 
Athenceum. 
To Stop the Rot in Potatoes. —Knowing the antiseptic 
qualities of chloride of lime, it struck me that it might 
prove efficacious in stopping the disease. I had a 
good-sized washing-tub half filled with water, to which 
I added half a pint of the chloride—and this mixture 
may be used again and again, and as many potatoes 
put in as the water would cover, and left in for 24 hours 
at least; they were taken out much hardened and 
whitened, and with an appearance most promising as 
to the probability of their untainted parts still keeping 
sound. Time, however, must prove this: I have no 
doubt that the disease is effectually checked by it. 
There is an earthy taste imparted by the process to 
the potato, but it is no greater than that often found 
in kidneys, and it may go off in the course of a little 
l ime.— Ag. Gazette. 
How to know whether Grain, will Vegetate. —There is 
one method that has been pointed out by the Highland 
Society, by which any person may satisfy himself con¬ 
cerning the sufficiency or insufficiency of the grain 
that he wishes to use for seed—that is, by making 
trials of small quantities of it in a warm exposure or 
in flower-pots, a considerable time before the season 
of sowing, numbering the grains employed in the ex¬ 
periment, and examining how many of them produce 
healthy plants. This method, if the experiment is 
properly conducted, must be deemed infallible for the 
purpose in view, and may very properly be employed 
by any person to ascertain the quality of the grain 
that he has in his own possession.—76. 
Lime Enriches the Fathers , but Impoverishes the Sons .— 
The addition of lime to the land has, in nearly all well 
cultivated countries, extensively prevailed at every 
period of authentic history. In Europe its use has 
been universal, and everywhere the same observation 
has been commonly made, and has become a proverb 
in almost every language. “ Lime,” the proverb says, 
“ enriches the fathers, but impoverishes the sons.” 
Laid on in repeated doses, and for a length of time, 
the luxuriant crops it raises at first gradually fall off, 
till at length, even with the stimulus, as it is called, of 
larger doses, the land refuses to be excited. A like 
result has been observed of late years from the appli¬ 
cation of gypsum, of nitrate of soda, of common salt, 
or of saltpetre. Their good effects were apparent for 
a certain number of years, but they gradually ceased 
to act, and the land was afterwards believed to be even 
weaker and less productive than before. How are 
these results to be explained ? Can this apparent ex¬ 
haustion be prevented? Can it easily be remedied ? 
Is it a necessary consequence of the use of lime, and 
of the other substances we have mentioned ? Is the 
manure or the farmer to blame for the result ? The 
plant carries away from the soil say ten substances. 
The soil is deficient in one of these, and the plant can¬ 
not grow. That one is lime or soda. You add it to 
the land, and your crops spring up luxuriantly. Re¬ 
joiced at this result, you add more lime, and your 
crops still grow well—for it requires the addition of 
300 or 400 bushels to an imperial acre to add one per 
cent, of lime to a soil which is 12 inches in depth. 
But after many crops the lime at length ceases to 
benefit the land, the crops are even smaller than they 
were before lime was first added, and the farmer is at 
a dead stand. Now what has he been doing all this 
time ? He has been adding one thing only in his 
lime—he has been carrying off TEN in his crops. Is 
it any wonder, then, that after a lapse of years, the 
land should become poor in one or more of the other 
nine ? The iron-smelter throws into his furnace his 
ore and his coal, but he gets no metal until he puts in 
lime also. He adds a dose of lime, and he draws off a 
running of metal. He adds more lime, and he pro¬ 
cures perhaps more iron. But he very soon finds that 
lime does no further good ; he has melted out all the 
iron; he has exhausted his furnace; the stimulus of 
lime has no effect. He must add ore and coal again, 
and again he will obtain his periodical flows of metal. 
So it is with the soil. The farmer who hopes by the 
continual addition of one thing, to make his land pro¬ 
duce continual good crops, hopes and acts against rea¬ 
son. It is his fault that the land has become exhaust¬ 
ed, and the cure is in his own hands. Lime, therefore, 
does not necessarily “impoverish the son.” But any 
treatment will ultimately make the land poorer which 
does not return to the soil all the things which the crops 
have carried off, and at least in equal proportion.— lb. 
Horticultural Expedition to California .—We are happy 
to announce the departure of Mr. Hartweg on a new 
expedition, on behalf of the Horticultural Society. 
Upon the present occasion the ground to be investi¬ 
gated is California, the riches of which were scarcely 
touched by Mr. Douglas. It is a country abounding 
in handsome annuals and perennials, beautiful bushes, 
and noble trees, all of which will be hardy enough to 
bear the climate of England. The expedition is to 
last three years, and the experience which Mr. Hart¬ 
weg possesses of Spanish America, together with his 
zeal and activity, and the ample protection which has 
been extended to him by Her Majesty’s Government, 
authorize us to congratulate the Fellows of the Soci¬ 
ety beforehand upon the valuable plants which they 
may expect to obtain through his means.— Gar. Chron 
