The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 104
CHAPTER 104
HUSBANDRY
1031. Roam where they will, men must at last stand behind the plough for their food : in spite of every hardship, therefore, husbandry is the chiefest industry.
1032. Husbandmen are the linch-pin of society : for they support all those that take to other work, not having the strength to plough.
1033. They alone live who live by tilling the ground: all others eat only the bread of dependence.
1034. Behold the men whose fields sleep under the shadow of the rich ears of their harvests: they will see the umbrellas of other princes bow down before the umbrella of their own sovereign.
1035. Behold the men that eat the bread of husbandry: they will not only not beg themselves, but they will also give alms to those that beg, without ever saying nay.
1036. Even they who have renounced all desire will have to suffer if the husbandman sitteth still with folded arms.
1037. If thou dry the soil of thy field till an ounce of mould is reduced to a quarter-ounce of dust, then not even a handful of manure will be needed, and the yield would be abundant.
1038. Manuring profiteth more than the ploughing: and when the land is weeded, guarding it profiteth more than irrigation.
1039. If the goodman visiteth not his land but sitteth at home, the land will take huff even as the goodwife.
1040. The fair one called Earth laugheth to herself when she seeth the sluggard cry, saying, Alas, I have nothing to eat.
