SENTENCE USAGE: Jenkins sold part of his land to buy equipment to work next season’s crop then lost the crop to drought. When he told me he was thinking about doing this, I told him he should hold on to his land, keep using his old equipment and “don’t eat the seed corn.”

People will persist in doing things that seem sensible, but these things turn around and bite them on a longer time-scale. In these times of national economic woe, this reminder from the agricultural days of the Old South might be worth resurrecting: “Don’t eat the seed corn.” Ears of corn held back at each harvest were dried and stored for planting the following spring. Any family who ate its seed corn either did so under the direst of economic circumstances or was totally and completely irresponsible.

“Don’t eat the seed corn” means don’t live beyond your means or don’t exhaust your savings.