A farmer (or probably a city man who has moved on to a small farm) complains that what ground isn't chewed up by the mice is damaged by (here some strange thing is mentioned, i.e., some strange sounding word). He had sold his ground, and then bought more, but finds that some of it is very old (in a geological sense) and some of it young; furthermore he is unable to learn how much rain will fall during the next few months and consequently cannot decide on what crops to grow.