Note 45 — LECTURE III. THE PROVERBS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS COMPARED.

These are two or three of the most notable—the first against “high farming,” which it is strange if it has not been appealed to in the modern controversy on the subject: Nihil minus expedit quam agrum optime colere. (Pliny, H. N., 6. 18.) Over against this, however, we must set another, warning against the attempt to farm with insufficient capital: Oportet agrum imbecilliorem esse quam agricolam; and yet another, on the liberal answer which the land will make to the pains and cost bestowed on it; Qui arat olivetum, rogat fructum; qui stercorat, exorat; qui cædit, cogit.