Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/190

 164 ) at the rate of 48s. a bushel per acre, an amazing produce, without manure or fallowing; it was merely dug up and sown immediately after. Few lands, however, are so good: perhaps twenty bushels would be a safe average to calculate on.

15th.—The Sulphur has arrived; the cause of the delay was the impossibility of procuring wheat—a right good reason. On Friday last my court was crowded with persons eager to hear the first cause tried before a jury in this colony: it was an action of defamation, brought by one merchant against another, and the damages were laid at 1000l. Ready written speeches were delivered, and many points were raised. The foreman was Mr. Andrews, a most respectable and wealthy merchant, and altogether the jury was of a superior grade. The trial occupied two days, and, after some deliberation, ended in a verdict for 39l. damages.

That and the succeeding day (9th) were very wet; thunder and lightning and some heavy hail-stones accompanied the rain on Sunday, however, it cleared up again. In the evening I enjoyed a delightful walk to Guildford; and before I left it on Monday, was the proud possessor of thirty-four Merino sheep and ten lambs, originally from the stock of Mr. Trimmer, near London, price 65l.; and I also bought a heifer for 25l., and bullock-yokes, chains, &c., &c., for 3l., from a gentleman who is about returning in the Sulphur. My