Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Bean-Field
Ok, I confess, I've been a little too hard on Thoreau. He did work. I am fairly impressed with his twelve bushels of beans. I have a minor bit of experience with beans, and he accomplished quite a bit doing it all the natural way. I am beginning to see him as much as an experimenter with life as a philosopher. Sometimes, I actually like him!
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I just read the part about the beans. I do have to agree that he did get a good crop, but I don't know if he actually spent more time trying to figure out how to get out of work or to work. It said, "it would be cheaper to spade up that than to use oxen to plow it, and to select a fresh spot from time to time than to manure the old, and he could do all this necessary farm work as it were with his left hand at odd hours in the summer; and thus he would not be tied to an ox, or horse, or cow, or pig, as at present." Thoreau definitely had his own way of accomplishing things.
ReplyDeleteI too, find this section one of my favorites. It reminded me of my early years. Beans beans, what a magical Fruit.
ReplyDeleteI grew up near a bean farm. When I was 12 I began to move irrigation pipes through the farm. Talk about difficult work. When the water is on the new beans for 12 hours, the ground gets really wet. (I need to get back to Walden)
Thoreau had to do some work to get those beans ready. He built the little house. He had his bean field. Now he has time to walk..