Economy, Part IV

Having solved the problems of housing and transportation in the simplest fashion, Thoreau now shows how he solved the problems of food, fuel, clothing, and incidentals. He also discusses farming, building, diet, furniture and the accumulation of property. He also talks about occupations that he has tried, and his conclusions as to which is the best. Finally, he concludes by explaining his attitudes towards charity and doing good.

beside produce consumed and on hand at the time this estimate was made of the value of $4.50 -- the amount on hand much more than balancing a little grass which I did not raise. All things considered, that is, considering the importance of a man's soul and of to-day, notwithstanding the short time occupied by my experiment, nay, partly even because of its transient character, I believe that that was doing better than any farmer in Concord did that year.

It can be seen that Thoreau had no serious interest in living there permanently, although in later years he sometimes looked back nostalgically.

Thoreau has a later chapter discussing his "bean-field" at great length; his purpose here is to deal with the general economic issues. However, in "The Bean-Field," he breaks down these costs further.

He would have done better if he had fertilized the land, planted earlier, and kept up with the hoeing better.

To compare these figures with those of today, it's necessary to remember that a dollar a day was workman's wages in Thoreau's day, while today a workman would make forty to one hundred dollars a day (shorter day too).

Note that his farming provided fuel and food as well as income.

Thoreau's final boast is typical of him; he feels that his amateurish, haphazard, and temporary farming made him more successful than any other farmer -- evidently because of his focus on higher things.

Compare this passage to the fourth paragraph of "Economy" beginning, "I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms . . ."

Note that while Thoreau is saying that he is not certain if a nation of philosophers is desirable, that is, if all people should live as simply as he does and devote their lives to higher purposes, he is everywhere in Walden advocating at least a giant step in that direction, as he continues to do in this paragraph.

Thoreau's statement about few places for free speech are due to the difficulty he and his friends had in finding places to speak about slavery and other controversial subjects. The transcendentalists found few churches willing to accept them; Emerson even left the Unitarian Church because he felt it was too dogmatic.

It's to be expected that Thoreau is no more impressed with monuments than with modern improvements.

His suggestion as to what should have been done with the pharaoh is hyperbole to show his complete disgust at kowtowing to authority. However, while being an advocate of peaceful protest, Thoreau did not consider violence unjustifiable under any circumstance; thus, he later defended John Brown.

When he says, "The mainspring is vanity, assisted by the love of garlic and bread and butter," he is using "bread and butter" as a term meaning livelihood, but he adds the garlic because it was part of the diet of the builders of the pyramids.

To show his complete comtempt for great monuments, he compares them to the hole a crazy fellow was digging to China. This hole, of course, didn't exist and the story is one of the urban legends that circulates without a grain of truth behind it. I heard it as a boy, long before I read Walden, and it shows up in jokes and even in TV commercials from time to time.

It seems that he was eating a lot of sugars, but the prices for sugar and molasses were relatively much higher in those days, since they were produced by hand labor and imported from the West Indies. He says two paragraphs down that he ate only a very little molasses.

Note here and elsewhere that he was not a vegetarian in any sense, although he ate relatively little meat and his words elsewhere inspired future vegetarians such as H. Salt.

Joseph Hosmer reported that Thoreau caught one woodchuck and released it two miles away (Canby 219).

So that all the pecuniary outgoes, excepting for washing and mending, which for the most part were done out of the house, and their bills have not yet been received, -- and these are all and more than all the ways by which money necessarily goes out in this part of the world, -- were

I address myself now to those of my readers who have a living to get. And to meet this I have for farm produce sold

which subtracted from the sum of the outgoes leaves a balance of $25.21¾ on the one side, -- this being very nearly the means with which I started, and the measure of expenses to be incurred, -- and on the other, beside the leisure and independence and health thus secured, a comfortable house for me as long as I choose to occupy it.

It doesn't seen to me that Thoreau should include his farming expenses in with his normal expenses although he did receive some food and fuel from farming that was not calculated in with his income.

To me, the significant part of this statement is that the cost of his house was actually less than his other expenses during eight months.

Looking at Thoreau's costs for oil and clothing, prices are cheaper today. In living in the woods, I am spending less than $60 a year for propane (cooking) and kerosene (lighting), while $2.00 in Thoreau's day would be the equivalent of somewhere between $80 and $200 today.

My food expenses while living in the woods are about $5.00 a day, and while traveling cross-country by bicycle, less than $9.00.

"Inveterate cavillers" are people who can't stop quibbling about trivial details; some were scornful of Thoreau's self-sufficiency because he often ate meals elsewhere.

"Cerealian," a made-up word, is similar in sound to "cerulean," a shade of blue.

As a boy, I experimented with unleavened bread, made with flour, salt, and a touch of oil, baking it in squares cut from a thin sheet. It was quite delicious and never seemed to get stale; however, it was slow chewing.

While a teenager and after reading that Thoreau cooked bread on an open fire, I tried the same on a number of occasions. The outside tends to cook while the inside remains raw. Therefore, the bread needs to be in a twist or in a flat sheet or in very small loaves.

In eating food, one can go in two directions: the one towards having more and more spices, fats, and sugars, and the other towards developing a more delicate taste.

Finally, as for salt, that grossest of groceries, to obtain this might be a fit occasion for a visit to the seashore, or, if I did without it altogether, I should probably drink the less water. I do not learn that the Indians ever troubled themselves to go after it.

Kains' Five Acres and Independence is a classic, first written during the 30's and republished many times since, which explains many of the practical problems of a small farm. There were also a number of books written during the 60's and 70's showing how to plant a garden, live on a homestead, and/or build a small house.

Thoreau liked to pretend that he was squatting (living without permission), but in actuality, he had an agreement with Emerson.

The widow's inheritance is one third by law.

I do without the plates; they're just something extra to be washed.

A lamp is almost a necessity during the long winter nights, and even the summer nights seem too long without one.

The statement about sitting on a pumpkin was earlier made by Thoreau.

I sometimes wonder if houses are so large just to hold all the furniture; certainly, the attic, basement, and garage end up stuffed full of such junk.

When someone dies and goes to the other world, all property is left behind, and Thoreau thinks that leaving it behind would be a good idea during this life as well.

"Trap" means personal belongings or baggage as well as a device to ensnare animals, and Thoreau deliberately continues to confuse the two throughout this paragraph, pointing out that animals are willing to lose legs to get free. The "gay butterfly" would be his poetic side.

The idea of having to squeeze through a small opening with one's furniture reminds me of Jesus's statement about the rich man passing through the eye of a needle.

The bed, by extension, can mean one's property; Jesus, rather than telling the sick man that he was cured, just told him to pick up his bed and walk; Thoreau gives this an unexpected twist.

Thoreau uses "paw" to enforce the analogy to being caught in an animal trap.

Note that Thoreau sees housekeeping as a kind of evil.

As usual, a great proportion was trumpery which had begun to accumulate in his father's day. Among the rest was a dried tapeworm. And now, after lying half a century in his garret and other dust holes, these things were not burned; instead of a bonfire, or purifying destruction of them, there was an auction, or increasing of them. The neighbors eagerly collected to view them, bought them all, and carefully transported them to their garrets and dust holes, to lie there till their estates are settled, when they will start again. When a man dies he kicks the dust.

Thoreau rejects teaching because it changed his behavior and even beliefs. His experience with trade was through the family business of making and selling pencils; Thoreau could have become wealthy, if he had desired.

Thoreau agonized for years over a method of earning a living that he would not find offensive; see "Life Without Principle."

Note he says he didn't want those things "just yet," probably a scarcastic answer to those who said he would change his mind someday.

Again, he makes some exceptions for those who feel they must work.

Having personally experienced working as a laborer, I can report that the evenings are free, but work is undependable.

Thoreau evidently recognizes the problems of a duplex and of apartment buildings.

He suggests, rather than finding one special group of people to live with, that we learn to have faith in our dealings with everyone.

The story of the two men traveling reminds me of bicycle travel where much less important differences make sticking together very long impossible.

Thoreau's statement, "I have made some sacrifices to a sense of duty, and among others have sacrificed this pleasure also" is an honest statement, a sarcastic statement, and a typical upside down statement of Thoreau's at the same time. Throughout the paragraph, he uses delicately loaded words: "try my hand," "some such pastime," "indulge myself," "lay Heaven under an obligation," "in all respects as comfortably as I maintain myself," "at least one may be spared," and "less humane." The joke lies, however, in the idea of some poor family wanting to live as simply as Thoreau.

Moving to hyperbole, he says that he wouldn't give up his career even "to save the universe from annihilation," and he claims that an equal stubbornness on the part of others is all that protects it.

According to superstition, the moon can cause foods to spoil or drive people insane, "lunatic" coming from the Latin word for moon.

To Thoreau, the Good Samaritan was not doing a good deed but rather behaving naturally.

John Howard was an English prison reformer who worked to get individual cells and meaningful work for the prisoners and who tried to move the system away from punishment to reform. Thoreau suggests that higher reforms are necessary.

"Hacking at the branches" would be giving money from time to time and "striking at the root" would be making fundamental changes that would erase poverty.

A second cause of poverty is an economic system that pays extremely high wages to those who contribute very little and very low wages to those who actually do the work. After Thoreau's time, Carnegie became famous for his charities, such as building libraries, and yet he did nothing to ensure that the workers who made him wealthy had fair incomes or safe working areas.

"Bacon" could be either Frances or Roger Bacon. Elizabeth Fry was English prison reformer who died in 1845.

Thoreau, as a New Englander, underestimates William Penn, who was second to Fox in founding the Quakers, played a pivotal role in changing the power of the jury, helped establish three states, and did more than any other person to bring democracy, freedom, and equality to America.

Thoreau suggests that the way to begin restoring humanity is by making our own lives more meaningful.