Chapter 7 Summary

Thoreau has mentioned his bean field before: in "Solitude," he mentions that he spent the summer tending to his crop of beans. In the chapter, Thoreau draws attention to this work, which he calls "steady," "self-reflecting," and "Herculean."

As if to demonstrate what he could learn by tending to beans, he alludes to a memory of passing by Walden Pond when he was four years old. In the present day, Thoreau felt his efforts in the bean field displayed his love of the land. The crops that he raised were apparently of interest to passers-by, and Thoreau mentions this detail to illustrate another point – that the crops he raised were a link between cultivation and the wild. He suggests that his methods of farming were natural by repeating what apparently was the criticism of passers-by, that he did not, for example, use manure...