Friday, January 11, 2013

Agricultural Inspiration III

Here are the final words of wisdom from Wendell Berry as written in, "Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer." For the first two installments, see my previous posts: Day 1 and Day 2.

                   XI
By the excellence of his work the workman is a neighbor. By selling only what he would not despise to own the salesman is a neighbor. By selling what is good his character survives his market.

                   XII
Let me wake in the night
and hear it raining
and go back to sleep.

                   XII
Don't worry and fret about the crops. After you have done all you can for them, let them stand in the weather on their own.

If the crop of any one year was all, a man would have to cut his throat every time it hailed.

But the real products of any year's work are the farmer's mind and the cropland itself.

If he raises a good crop at the cost of belittling himself and diminishing the ground, then he has gained nothing. He will have to begin all over again the next spring, worse off than before.

Let him receive the season's increment into his mind. Let him work it into the soil.

The finest growth that farmland can produce is a careful farmer.

Make the human race a better head. Make the world a better piece of ground.

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