The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-30 00:00:00

TITESDA EVENING; SEPTEMBER so, 1845

ENGLISH AND GERMAN TASTES

COMPARED.
The occupations and amusements of the upper classes
in Germany being much more sedentary and refined
than with us, consisting much more in music, reading,
theatrical entertainment, conversation, visiting, and social
enjoyment, and much less in hunting, shooting, riding,
racing, boating, and all the active rough sports and tastes
which occupy our young men of the higher classes, and
bring them into daily familiar intercourse with the lower,
as assistants and partakers in their common pursuit,
keep those classes in Germany much more apart from,
and ignorant of; each other than they are in England.
The son of a nobleman or country gentleman of the
largest fortune and highest family in England is intel-
lectually, and in his tastes and habitual enjoyments
not very different, or rather, is very much the same as
the son of a farmer, or of a man of the lower class.
The difference is more in the means and scale
of enjoyment than in the tastes of the two persons at
the extreme ends of our social body. They have many
objects, pursuits, feelings, occupations, sports in com-
mon, and bringing them together. These are, perhaps,
low in tase, and denote a low standard of intent-cam' de-
velopment among our higher classes ; but they bring the
lower up to that standard, establish a wholesome inter-
course and exchange of ideas between them, for the
lowest can understand and talk of horses, dogs, guns,
or yachts, as well as the highest—and denotes a higher
social state of the whole, than if the upper class were so
far refined, and educated beyond the mass of the people
below, as to be, p.s in Germany, a froth without spirit
or flavour, swimming on the surface, and altogether dif-
ferent in substance from the good liquor at the bottom.
The social state of Germany is similar to that of British
India. The upper enlightened class, consisting of civil and
militaryfunctionaries,lawyers, judges,and officers connect-
ed with the administration oflaw andcollection of revenue,
bankers, merchants, and professional men, is different in
language, habits, ideas, and feelings, from the Hindoo
people whom it governs ; is little acquainted with them
—does not mix with them—has little knowledge of
them but what circumstances may force upon its notice.
yet governs them tolerably well, and the great mass of
the inert Indian population below it is submissive; and
contented with the state of pupilage in which they exist.
To this great mass of the . people in Germany, the
opinions, political or religious, of the upper class,
scarcely penetrate. They do not at all take up the Ger-
man Catholic Church. On the contrary, they are evi-
dently in the same intellectual and .religious condition
in which they were four centuries ago—quite as ready
for pilgrimages or crusades, or whatever superstition or
belief the Church of Rome may impose on them. They.
arc not ripe for this movement.—Laing's Naes.

AGRICULTURAL MEETINGS.
NORTH DERBYSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
CHESTERFIELD, SEPT. 24.—0 n Wednesday the twenty-
seventh annual meeting of the above Society was held at the
Angel Inn, Chesterfield, on which occasion about 1504 was
offered in different premiums for prize stock, the property. of
members of the Society. Premiums were also awarded for
the best implements of husbandry, as well as for the encou-
ragement of good servants, for the greatest quantity of effi-
cient under-draining, and also for the best cultivated farms.
About half-past eleven o'clock, his Grace the Duke of
Devonshire, Lord Morpeth, the Hon. John Talbot, and
William Paxton, Esq., arrived from Chatsworth in a carriage
and four, and immediately proceeded to the show-yard,
where his Grace and his noble visitor were received by the
President of the Society, Win. Evans, Esq., M.P. for North
Derbyshire, and J. J. Cottingham, Es.q., the Mayor of Ches-
terfield. The show• yard at this period was much crowded,
among whom we noticed the following noblemen and gentle-
men :—His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Morpeth,
W. Evans, Esq., M.P., Hon. John Talbot, Major Bilbre, R.
N. Arkwright, Esq., the Mayor of Chesterfield, Philip
Heacock, Esq., W. J. Bagshawe, Esq., one of our county
magistrates, J. B. Crompton, Esq., Charles Woraley, Esq.,
and several otherjgentlemen, whose names we were not
familiar with. His Grace the Duke of Devonshire remained
on the ground for a considerable period, and afterwards
proceeded to Chatsworth, accompanied by Lord Morpeth
and the Hon. J. Talbot.
The dinner took place at the Angel Inn, but which, we re-
gret to state, was not so well attended as on former occasions.
W. Evans, Esq., M.P., the President of the Society,took the
chair.

The Duke of Noßrom—Yes ; he thought that was quite
right, and he thought it right, also, that the premiums
should not be given to men who went about with drills, but
that the farmers who had drills should employ their own
men to do it. Every master who wished that his men should
become scientific in their vocations should have a drill of his
own, and let his men drill, and perhaps that would be the
means of bringing the drill system more into fashion than
what it already was.
[Some twenty or thirty labourers, to whom prizes had
been awarded, were here introduced into the room, and they
stood in a line along the length of the room.]
The Duke of NORFOLK then addressed the labourers on
the subject of the disease in potatoes, recommending them
to pick out the bad ones and salt the remainder, and put
them away till after Christmas, looking at them every fort-
night to pick out the bad ones. To enable them to keep the
potatoes he proposed to sell them turnips, and he recom-
mended his tenants to do the same. An acre of turnips,
yielding 320 bushels, at 4d. per bushel, would be Si. 6s. Bd.,
and an acre of Swedes, also yielding 320 bushels at 6d..
would be 8/., so that the farmers could sell at that price
without loss. It had been stated that these bad potatoes
poisoned the pigs. Now, he wanted to try that, and he put
up two pigs. One he fed upon as bad potatoes as he could
find, raw, and the other upon as bad, but they were cooked.
They had this food ten days. The one that had the potatoes
raw was affected in his bowels, but he got over it, and then
he thought piggy should have some better food, and he gave
him some barley meal. The other that had his potatoes
steamed ailed nothing.
The prizes for long servitude, and to the best plougman,
were then distributed ; and also prizes for the beat sheep.
Lord EDWARD HOWARD proposed "The health of Sir H.
Dent Goring."
Sir H. D. GORING acknowledged the compliment, and said
he was sorry to find that the premium of 50/., to which he
contributed, for the best cultivated farm, had not more com-
petitors.
Several other toasts were drunk, after which the Noble
President left the chair, and the principal part of the com-
pany departed.
GRAND DINNER AT WALTHAM AGRICULTURAL
SHOW.
On Friday last a grand dinner took place at Waltham, on
occasion of the annual exhibition of stock and implements of
the Waltham Agricultural Association, of which his Grace
the Duke of Rutland is the president. The show of stock
and implements was very good; but for so large an agricul-
tural district, was not equal to the expectation of many of the
visitors.
The dinner was presided over by the Duke of Rutland, who,
in the course of one of his speeches, said that when the land
produced as much corn as was required for home consump
tion he would give up the corn-laws.

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NORFOLK AGRICULTURAL
REPORT.
Hitherto the harvesting of grain bas proceeded with all
due expedition, and three weeks of uninterrupted weather
have done muck towards securing the crops in admirable con-
dition, although a small portion of the wheat crop is still in
the fields, together with a somewhat considerable quantity of
barley. The former may be said to have been well got in,
since the only exception is that which has arisen from the
impetuosity of the farmers themselves in not allowng the first
cut wheats to remain in the fields a sufficient time to dis-
charge the sap and harden the grain before they were car-
ried to the rick, the consequence of which was that the
bulk became heated sufficiently to injure the sample.
With respect to the latter, the weather at this
moment appears to be threatening and inauspicious,
nevertheless it must be admitted that a moderate
quantity of rain would be of infinite service toward facili-
tating the separation of the corn from the straw,
if not in improving the sample also. The prevelant
opinion appears to be that the barley crop is defective in qua-
lity, and upon some of the lusty lands in the eastern division
of the county, in quantity also. Turnips have suffered very
materially from the want of moisture; and on all but lands
of the very first-rate qualities the plants exhibit a very un-
promising appearance; in short, the bulk of the whole crop
may now be estimated at one-third less than an average
produce. The plant of mangel wurzel is more perfect and
unfailing. Since the introduction of potatoes into England
(1650), no instance stands upon record of their having been
attacked by a disease similar to that which is now prevalent.
It appears evident that the roots cannot be preserved for any
length of time, and it may be questionable if a sufficient
number can be saved for the purpose of seeding the land at
the forthcoming spring ; the growers seem desirous of making
them available fur present purposes, as cattle food.—Norfolk
Chronicle.