- English translation
You can plant early a hundred times before one early crop lets you down.
- Literal wording
Every hundred early-sown ones, until one early-sown one fails.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying praises crops sown at the start of the season: a farmer can plant early a hundred times before even one such planting disappoints. Early sowing is presented as the nearly reliable path to a good harvest, worth preferring whenever there is a choice.
Beyond the field, it becomes general advice to act promptly and do each thing when its moment arrives. Effort made at the right time is portrayed as the dependable choice, one that very seldom lets a person down.
- When it is used
Use it to urge someone to act promptly or start a task at its proper moment, especially when they are tempted to delay. It suits farming talk, but also everyday advice about planning ahead and not putting things off.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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