age for gaping after his fellows, but will keep his mind on his
work. No younger man will be better than he at scattering the
seed and avoiding double-sowing; for a man less staid gets
disturbed, hankering after his fellows.

(ll. 448-457) Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane (17) who
cries year by year from the clouds above, for she give the signal
for ploughing and shows the season of rainy winter; but she vexes
the heart of the man who has no oxen. Then is the time to feed
up your horned oxen in the byre; for it is easy to say: `Give me
a yoke of oxen and a waggon,' and it is easy to refuse: `I have
work for my oxen.' The man who is rich in fancy thinks his
waggon as good as built already -- the fool! He does not know
that there are a hundred timbers to a waggon. Take care to lay
these up beforehand at home.

(ll. 458-464) So soon as the time for ploughing is proclaimed to
men, then make haste, you and your slaves alike, in wet and in
dry, to plough in the season for ploughing, and bestir yourself
early in the morning so that your fields may be full. Plough in
the spring; but fallow broken up in the summer will not belie
your hopes. Sow fallow land when the soil is still getting
light: fallow land is a defender from harm and a soother of
children.

(ll. 465-478) Pray to Zeus of the Earth and to pure Demeter to
make Demeter's holy grain sound and heavy, when first you begin
ploughing, when you hold in your hand the end of the plough-tail
and bring down your stick on the backs of the oxen as they draw
on the pole-bar by the yoke-straps. Let a slave follow a little