the one hand, there is a steady outflow [29] of
expenses from the house, and, on the other, a lack of profitable works
outside to meet expenses; need you longer wonder if the field-works
create a deficit and not a surplus? In proof, however, that the man who
can give the requisite heed, while straining every nerve in the pursuit
of agriculture, has speedy [30] and effective means of making money, I
may cite the instance of my father, who had practised what he preached.
[31]

[28] Cf. Thuc. v. 7; Plat. "Rep." 350 A; "Theaet." 200 B.

[29] Or, "the expenses from the house are going on at the full rate,"
{enteleis}. Holden cf. Aristoph. "Knights," 1367: {ton misthon
apodoso 'ntele}, "I'll have the arrears of seamen's wages paid to
a penny" (Frere).

[30] {anutikotaten}. Cf. "Hipparch," ii. 6.

[31] Or, "who merely taught me what he had himself carried out in
practice."

Now, my father would never suffer me to purchase an estate already under
cultivation, but if he chanced upon a plot of land which, owing to the
neglect or incapacity of the owner, was neither tilled nor planted, [32]
nothing would satisfy him but I must purchase it. He had a saying that
estates already under cultivation cost a deal of money and allowed of
no improvement; and where there is no prospect of improvement, more than
half the pleasure to be got from the possession vanishes. The height of
happiness was, he maintained, to see your purchase, be it dead chattel
or live animal, [33] go on improving daily under your own eyes. [34]
Now, nothing shows a larger increase [35] than a piece of land reclaimed
from barren waste and bearing fruit a hundredfold. I can assure you,
Socrates, many is the farm which my father and I made worth I do not
know how many times more than its original value. And then, Socrates,
this valuable invention [36] is so easy to learn that you who have but
heard it know and understand it as well as I myself do, and can go away
and teach it to another if you choose. Yet my father did not learn it of
another, nor did he discover it by a painful mental process; [37] but,
as he has often told me, through pure love of husbandry and fondness of
toil, he would become enamoured of such a spot as I describe, [38] and
then nothing would content him but he must own it, in order to have
something to do, and at the same time, to derive pleasure along with
profit from the purchase. For you must know, Socrates, of all Athen