Wherever it may wander, the world follows the farmer’s plow. Thus despite all its hardships, farming is the foremost occupation. §
Farmers are the linchpin of the world, for they support all who take up other work, not having the strength to plow. §
Those who live by the plow live in self-sufficiency. All others lean on them to simply subsist. §
Those whose fields lie shaded by abundant sheaves of grain will see many nations overshadowed by their own. §
Those who eat food harvested with their own hands will never beg and never refuse a beggar’s outstretched palm.§
When plowers of the fields stand idly with folded arms, even desireless ascetics will not last long.§
If soil is dried so that one ounce shrinks to one-quarter ounce, fruitful yields will not require a single handful of fertilizer.§
It is better to fertilize than to furrow a field. After weeding, it is more important to watch over a field than even to water it.§
If the lord of the land fails to visit his fields, they will sulk as surely as a neglected wife.§
Mother Earth laughs when she sees lazy men crying, “We are so poor.”§