Chapter VII: The Bean-Field

He describes his summer labor of hoeing seven miles of bean-rows, which attached him to the earth and connected him to his own childhood.

Working barefooted and slowly, he became much more intimate with his beans than usual, making the earth 'say beans instead of grass.'

As his hoe tinkles against ancient Indian arrowheads, he feels the work is no longer about beans, but an inexhaustible entertainment.

He details his 'long war with weeds,' and reflects that he cultivated beans not to eat, but for the sake of tropes and expression.

He provides a detailed accounting of his outgoes and income from the bean-field, resulting in a profit of $8.71½, and offers some farming advice.

He resolves to plant seeds of sincerity, truth, and simplicity, but finds they do not grow, as men are fated to plant only corn and beans.

He laments that husbandry is no longer a sacred art but is pursued with haste and selfishness, and that the true husbandman relinquishes all claim to the produce.