Walker had planted his corn. He said he had; and that led him off into a
train of arguing, the object of which was, to maintain his former opinion
relative to the great benefits that would attend the cultivation of this
crop. He entered into a calculation of the distances, the space of ground
required by each plant, the number of plants upon an acre, the number of
ears upon a plant, the quantity of seed upon an ear, ending in a statement
of the amount of the crop per acre. He then dwelt upon the quantity and
value of the fodder, upon the facility of cultivation, upon the small
quantity of seed required for an acre; and, finally, upon the preparation
which the growing of the crop would make for a succeeding crop of wheat.

"I do confess, that I was very hard to be convinced; I became interested
to be sure, and I resolved to give the thing a trial immediately, if
possible, or rather to set about it immediately; but, I confess, that if
the thing had been urged upon me by almost any other person, I should not
have done it. 'Well, then,' said I, 'William, we will give your little
corn a trial, for it is not too late yet.' But now a difficulty that
appeared to be insuperable arose; namely, that the seed was all gone! The
seed was all planted in Sussex. As soon as I reflected on this, I became
really eager to make the experiment; so true it is, that we seldom know
the full value of what we have had, till we have lost it. I recollected,
however, that I had rather recently seen an ear or two of this corn in
some seed-drawers that I had in the garden-house, not being quite sure,
however, that they were of the true sort; and now I, who had so long
turned from the subject rather with indifference, could not go to sleep
for my doubts, my hopes, and fears, about these two bits of ears of corn.
We had no light, or I should have got up to go and hunt the boxes, which I
did as soon as day-light appeared, and there, to my great joy, I found two
bits of ears of corn, which from the size and shape of the cobb, I knew to
be of the true sort. This was upon the 8th of June in the morning."