What will the retirees' pasture now be used for?

Soon afterwards, it is announced that a small field near the orchard, originally set aside for retired animals who could work no more, was to be ploughed up and sown with barley. Muriel is troubled by this development, and she consults the fifth commandment. Again, she realises she has remembered it incorrectly, for it says, “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.”