A method for introducing the higher order terms in the potential expansion to
study the continuous limits of the Toda hierarchy is proposed in this paper.
The method ensures that the higher order terms are differential polynomials of
the lower ones and can be continued to be performed indefinitly. By introducing
the higher order terms, the fewer equations in the Toda hierarchy are needed in
the so-called recombination method to recover the KdV hierarchy. It is shown
that the Lax pairs, the Poisson tensors, and the Hamiltonians of the Toda
hierarchy tend towards the corresponding ones of the KdV hierarchy in
continuous limit.Comment: 20 pages, Latex, to be published in Journal of Physics