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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that examines chapter 7 of Thoreau's Walden from the standpoint of the scientific method. The writer evaluates chapter 7, "The Bean-Field," both from a hard and soft scientific approach and argues that Thoreau's account is more successfully and accurately viewed as a sociological experience than an agricultural one. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khbean.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the perspective of science and the scientific method offers two basic approaches, agricultural and sociological. The first approach is that of "hard" science, which only considers experimental elements, rain, soil,
labor, etc. and results, while the second approach, that of social science, also considers the psychological effects of the experience, which is what Thoreau himself saw as the point of
life on Walden Pond. First of all, one can look on Thoreaus experience with growing beans in purely pragmatic terms. From this viewpoint, his "experiment" is not extremely successful.
He spent around fifteen dollars on his crops, earns roughly twenty-four dollars for a net profit of roughly nine dollars, which was not considered a great amount of money for
a summers labor even in 1854, although it was sufficient to support Thoreau as a single man with simple needs. This approach does outline the parameter of the "experiment."
Thoreau plants two and a half acres of beans, as well as lesser amount of other crops, potatoes, turnips and peas, and farms them throughout a summer. As he hoes
his rows, he stops to consider the wildlife around him. Rain comes, which helps his crops, but woodchucks destroy a good portion, nibbling a "quarter of an acre clean" (p.
446). Since it has only been around fifteen years since the land was cleared, Thoreau judges that the soil should still be rich, so he does not add manure for
fertilizer. However, as he turns up the soil, he discovers that the site was once the site of an Native American village, "an extinct nation," and "so, to some extent,
had exhausted the soil for this very crop" (p. 447). Thoreau removes weeds and places fresh soil around the bean stems, but his diligent labor only partially compensates for the
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