MISCELLANEOUS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 105, 9 March 1844, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

An American Elder. — As I was ajoggin'on along the road, who should I overtake but Elder Stephen Grab, of Beechmeadows, a mounted on a considerable of a cleverlookin black mare. The elder was a pious man; at least he looked like one, and spoke like one too. His face was as long as the moral law, and p'rhaps an inch longer, and as smooth as a hone ; and his voice was so soft and sweet, and his tongue moved so ily on its binges, you'd a thought you might a trusted him with ontold gold, if you didn't care whether you ever got it again or no. He had a bran new hat on, with & brim that was none of the smallest, to keep the sun from makin' his inner man wink, and! his go-to-meetin' clothes on, and a pair of silver mounted spurs, and a beautiful white cravat tied behind, so as to have no bows to it, and look meek. If there was a good man on airth, you'd ha' said it was him. And he seemed to feel it, and know it too, for there was a kind of look o' triumph about him, as if he had conquered the Evil One, and was considerably well satisfied with himself.— Sar» Slick.

Tub YotTTHS or Francb and England. — Place an ardent young Parisian, of good family and fortune, by the side of a lad of the same condition in London, fresh from Oxford or Cambridge. What is the latter dreaming of? Seduction or keeping, TattersalTs or Elmore, Stevens's, claret, hazarde, ecarte, Epsom, an opera-dancer, or a groom, a livery stable-jobber, or a billiard marker. Hia most refined study is an obscene book from Cranbourne-alley, or a masquerade at the Argylerooms. The contrast with & Parisian youth is melancholy : science or art is bis passion ; he is the enthusiastic votary of Cousin, or some other professor of literature or philosophy ; his ideas are

elevated, his sensual wants few, and those comparatively despised : he lives in the agitation of intellect, and the pursuit of science: in manners, he is as different from the plethoric dandy in Bond Street, as the quiet and elegant girl of Paris is from the dashing and daring £leve of a fashionable boarding-school in London. The Parisian youth is reserved and serious in deportment, ardent in manner, saturnine in complexion, perhaps somewhat too fond of disputation, but entirely conversant in religious subjects, philosophy, the arts, and politics ; supercilious pride, aristocratic contempt, overfed indifference to the feelings of others, are unknown to him. He is domestic in his habits, and strong in his feelings, enthusiastic in his pursuits ; his deportment is neither surly nor" boisterous, but it is grave and impassioned. We would ask — Is this the popular notion of a young Parisian, or can afly two things be more opposite ? — Westminster Review. Rural Life in England. — The taste of the English in the cultivation of the land, and in what is termed landscape gardening, is unrivalled. Nothing is more imposing than their park scenery. But what most delights me is the creative talent with which the English decorate the unostentatious abodes of middle life. The rudest habitation, the most unpromising and scanty portion of land, in the hands of an Englishman of taste, becomes a little paradise. The residence of fortune and refinement in the country has diffused a degree of taste and elegance in rural economy that descends to the lowest class. The very labourer, with his thatched-edttage and narrow slip of ground, attends to their embellishment. The trim hedge, the grass-plat before the door, the little flower-bed bordered with snug box, the woodbine trained up against the wall, and hanging its blossoms about the lattice ; the pot of flowers in the window; the holly providently planted about the house to cheat winter of its dreariness, and throw in a gleam of green summer to cheer the fire-side; all these bespeak the influence of taste, flowing down from high sources, and pervading the lowest levels of the public mind. — Washington Irving.

Marathon and Salamis. — These were battles, against which no philosophy can declaim ; they were just in the cause of liberty, and replete with mercy to the world ; for had the barbarian mass extinguished the independence of Attica, literature and science would have been clouded from the eye of Europe, and all that we know of the mighty past been hurled into chaos ; the present proud age would have been deprived of the most brilliant lights which have guided to the improvements of peace and the renowns of war ; nor would the many hearts that have, through all ages, throbbed in admiration of these devoted deeds, been nurtured in the love of freedom, or been hateful of enthralment by a foreign aggressor. — Chambers's London Journal.

A Simple Means of Preventing the Failure of the Potato Crop. — It will be allowed, by all practical farmers, that the potato sets, when cut, discharge a large quantity of fluid or juice, the loss of which has a tendency to weaken the germinating powers of the sets, and, at the same time, exposes them to undergo fermentation in the heap. In 1833, we had our seed potatoes from the parish of Pennycuick. When cut, I desired the women to riddle a shovelful of hot lime on every basketful of new cut sets. They were turned over and over again, until the lime was taken up by the sets, when they were put into a heap three or four feet thick, where I have kept them for three or four weeks. The hot lime had the effect of stopping the flow of the juice and of encrusting a strong skin on the sets. This crust, on the one hand, preserves the sap being drawn away from the sets in a dry season, among dry soil, and of repelling wet in a wet season among damp earth. The sorts of potatoes experimented on, were dons and blues. The land was in a fine moist state, well worked, and the dung well made ; and they were ridged in the last week in April. There was a regular braird, and the crop was fine. In 1834, our seed potatoes, dons and blues, were obtained from the same parish, and treated in the same manner. The ground was very dry, the dung dry, and the heat great when they were planted ; so dry, that the dust was flying from the strong clay soil, when drilled up. The braird was regular, and the crop fine, with the exception of eleven drills, which were planted without the sets being limed, and which proved a complete failure, and of some oxnobles which had also failed. In 1839, the seed potatoes were from Gala Water, buffs, and which were planted in the last week of April, in strong clay soil, not well worked, and the dung very dry j but the braird was very regular, and the crop fine. There were none planted without lime this season. In 1840 again, the seed potatoes were from Gala Water, dons and blues, which were planted in the end of May, in a light loam, full of wire-worm, but well worked, and the dung very dry. The crop was fine. A few drills were tried, as an experiment, without the lime, and they were so complete a failure that they were ploughed down. — Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland.