[227]
I have already said, O judges, that even if you remove all these injuries, still
that the occupation of cultivating land is maintained owing to the hopes and a
certain sort of pleasure which it gives, rather than because of the profit and
emolument arising from it. In truth every year constant labour and constant expense
is incurred in the hope of a result which is casual and uncertain. Moreover, the
crop does not command a high price, except in a disastrous harvest. But if there has
been a great abundance of crops gathered, then there is cheapness in selling them.
So that you may see that the corn must be badly sold if it is got in well, or else
that the crop must be bad if you get a good price for it. And the whole business of
agriculture is such, that it is regulated not by reason or by industry, but by those
most uncertain things,—the weather and the winds. When from agriculture
one tenth is extracted by law and on fair terms,—when a second is levied
by a new regulation, on account of the necessity of procuring a sufficient supply
for ourselves,—when, besides, corn is purchased every year by public
authority,—and when, after all that, more still is ordered by magistrates
and lieutenants to be supplied for the granary,—what, or how much is there
after all this of his own crop which the cultivator or owner can have at his own
disposal, for his own profit?
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