136 Traniplanting Indian Corn. [Part II. 



the ground. I resolved to plant out two rows of these, 

 even these. While I was at it Mr. Judge Mitchell 

 called upon me. He laughed at us very heartily. This 

 was on the Qtk of July. I challenged him to take him 

 three to one my two rows against any two rows of his 

 corn of equal length ; and he is an excellent farmer on 

 excellent land. " Then," said I, " if you are afraid to 

 " back your opinion, I do not mind your laugh." 



218. On the 27th of August Mr. Judge Mitchell 

 and his brother the justly celebrated Doctor Mitchell 

 did me the honour to call here. I was gone to the 

 mill ; but they saw the Corn. The next day I had the 

 pleasure to meet Doctor Mitchell, for the first time, at 

 his brother's ; and a very great pleasure it was ; lor a 

 man more full of knowledge and apparently less con- 

 scious of it, I never saw in my life. But, the Com : 

 " What do you thinic of my Corn noAv '?" I asked Mr. 

 Mitchell whether he did not think I should haAe won 

 the wager. " Why, I do not know, indeed," said he, 

 " as to the two first planted rows." 



219. On the lO^A of September, Mr. Judge Law- 

 REXCE, in company with a young gentleman, saw the 

 Corn. He examined the ears. Said that they were 

 well-filled, and the grains large. He made some calcu- 

 lations as to the amount of the crop. I think he agreed 

 with me, that it Avould be at the rate of about forty 

 bushels to the acre. All that now remained was to har- 

 vest the Corn, in a few weeks' time, to shell, to weigh 

 it ; and to obtain a couple of rows of equal length of 

 every neighbour surrounding me ; and then, make the 

 comparison, the triumphant result of which I antici- 

 pated with so much certainty, that my impatience for 

 the harvest exceeded in degree the heat of the weather, 

 though that continued broiling hot. That very night ! 

 the night following the day when Mr. Judge Lawrence 

 saw the Corn, eight or nine steers and heifers leaped, 

 or broke, into my pasture from the road, kindly poked 

 down the fence of the field to take with them four oxen 

 of mv OAvn which had their heads tied down, and in they 

 all went just upon the transplanted Corn, of which they 

 left neither ear nor stem, except about two bushels of 

 ears which they had, in their haste, trampled under 



