44 JETHRO WOOD; 



Emperor of Russia, and the peculiar circum- 

 stances attending the gift and its reception 

 formed a large part of the newspaper gossip 

 of the day. Wood, though a man of cultiva- 

 tion, intellectually as well as agriculturally, 

 was not familiar with French, which was then 

 as now the diplomatic language. So he re- 

 quested his personal friend, Dr. Samuel 

 Mitchill, President of the New York Society 

 of Natural History arid Sciences, to write a 

 letter in French to accompany the gift. 



" The autocrat of all the Russias received 

 the plow and the letter, and sent back a dia- 

 mond ring which the newspapers declared 

 to be worth from $7 ,000 to $15,000 in token 

 of his appreciation. By some indirection, the 

 ring was not delivered to the donor of the 

 plow, but to the writer of the letter, and Dr. 

 Mitchill instantly appropriated it to his own 

 use. Wood appealed to the Russian Minister 

 at Washington for redress. The Minister 



