Henry David Thoreau: Walden

7. The Bean-Field (continued)

But to be more particular, for it is complained that Mr. Coleman has reported chiefly the expensive experiments of gentlemen farmers, my outgoes were,--

     For a hoe ................................... $ 0.54
     Plowing, harrowing, and furrowing ............  7.50  Too much.
     Beans for seed ...............................  3.12+
     Potatoes for seed ............................  1.33
     Peas for seed ................................  0.40
     Turnip seed ..................................  0.06
     White line for crow fence ....................  0.02
     Horse cultivator and boy three hours .........  1.00
     Horse and cart to get crop ...................  0.75
                                                  --------
         In all .................................. $14.72+

My income was (patrem familias vendacem, non emacem esse oportet), from

     Nine bushels and twelve quarts of beans sold .. $16.94
     Five    "    large potatoes ..................... 2.50
     Nine    "    small .............................. 2.25
     Grass ........................................... 1.00
     Stalks .......................................... 0.75
                                                    -------
         In all .................................... $23.44
     Leaving a pecuniary profit,
         as I have elsewhere said, of .............. $ 8.71+

This is the result of my experience in raising beans: Plant the common small white bush bean about the first of June, in rows three feet by eighteen inches apart, being careful to select fresh round and unmixed seed. First look out for worms, and supply vacancies by planting anew. Then look out for woodchucks, if it is an exposed place, for they will nibble off the earliest tender leaves almost clean as they go; and again, when the young tendrils make their appearance, they have notice of it, and will shear them off with both buds and young pods, sitting erect like a squirrel. But above all harvest as early as possible, if you would escape frosts and have a fair and salable crop; you may save much loss by this means.