The Eleusinian Mystery

Not sure how well this will go, but here goes:

A young, eager farmer, wanting to prove the green thumb ran in his family, swore to his neighbor, an old coot, he would have the better harvest this year. Right after winter thaw he got to sowing his field right away while the old coot doddled about probing the field with a weird gizmo. Day after day, week after week, he kept examining his field until, finally, he too planted his crop. From then on, both attended to their fields diligently for the next few months till harvest when the old coot’s crop had grown tall and ripe while the young man’s were shriveled and colored. The young man pulled at his hair and cried, “I don’t understand, I watered them, fertilized them, and pruned them. Where did I go wrong!?” Replied the old man, in his strange accent, “ya didn’t appr'ize da meater.”

-Q-