104. Farming

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."