17.14
What if weeds are springing up, choking the corn and robbing it of its food, much as useless drones rob bees of the food they have laid in store by their industry? The weeds must be cut, of course, just as the drones must be removed from the hive.
17.15
Don’t you think, then, that we have good reason for putting on men to hoe? No doubt; but I am reflecting, Ischomachus, on the advantage of bringing in an apt simile. For you roused my wrath against the weeds by mentioning the drones, much more than when you spoke of mere weeds.
18.1
However, I continued, after this comes reaping, I fancy. So give me any information you can with regard to that too. Yes—unless I find that you know just what I do about that subject too. You know, then, that the corn must be cut. I know that, naturally. Are you for standing with your back to the wind when you cut corn, or facing it? Not facing it, no! I think it is irritating both to the eyes and to the hands to reap with cornstalks and spikes blowing in your face.
18.2
And would you cut near the top or close to the ground? If the stalk is short, I should cut low down, so that the straw may be more useful; but if it is long, I think it would be right to cut in the middle, in order that the threshers and winnowers may not spend needless trouble on what they don’t want. I imagine that the stubble may be burnt with advantage to the land, or thrown on the manure heap to increase its bulk.
