Homesteads

Now the ships were usually beached on the dry sand: / the young men were busy with weddings and their fresh fields: / I was deciding on laws and homesteads: suddenly, / from some infected region of the sky, came a wretched plague, / corrupting bodies, trees, and crops, and a season of death. / They relinquished sweet life, or dragged their sick limbs / around: then Sirius blazed over barren fields: / the grass withered, and the sickly harvest denied its fruits.

Even though many of them are major food producers, they are legally obliged to stop farming Monday and leave their homesteads by August 10.