Chapter VII: The Bean-Field Practice Quiz — Walden Pond
by Henry David Thoreau — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter VII: The Bean-Field
How many miles of bean rows has Thoreau planted by the time the chapter opens?
Seven miles of rows, already planted, on about two and a half acres of upland.
What time does Thoreau begin hoeing each morning?
He begins at five o'clock in the morning, working barefooted while the dew is still on the ground, and usually works until noon.
What are Thoreau's three main enemies in the bean-field?
Worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks, which nibble a quarter of an acre clean.
What does Thoreau find in the soil while hoeing?
Native American arrowheads, small implements of war and hunting, stones marked by Indian fires, and bits of pottery and glass.
How much profit does Thoreau earn from his farming?
$8.71 in profit, from $23.44 in income against $14.72 in expenses.
What does Thoreau do with his harvested beans?
He sells most of them (nine bushels and twelve quarts for $16.94) and exchanges the rest for rice, since he does not eat beans himself.
What bird sings near Thoreau as he plants, crying "Drop it, drop it -- cover it up"?
The brown thrasher (also called the red mavis), which sings from the topmost spray of a birch tree.
What distant sounds does Thoreau hear from the town on gala days?
He hears great guns firing and martial music from military turnouts, which sound faintly like a puffball bursting or bees swarming.
How does Thoreau describe himself as seen by passing travelers?
He calls himself "a very agricola laboriosus" -- a laborious farmer -- the "home-staying, laborious native of the soil" while travelers sit at ease in their gigs.
What do the passing travelers say about Thoreau's farming?
They criticize his late planting ("Beans so late! peas so late!"), recommend manure and chip dirt, and compare his field unfavorably with others.
What does Thoreau mean when he calls himself a Pythagorean regarding beans?
Pythagoreans were known for abstaining from beans. Thoreau means he does not eat beans himself -- he grows them purely for the experience and trades them for rice.
How does Thoreau compare himself to contemporaries who went to Boston, Rome, or India?
While they devoted summer days to fine arts, contemplation, or trade, he devoted his to husbandry in New England, finding equal value in farming.
What deeper question does Thoreau ask about his bean cultivation?
"What shall I learn of beans or beans of me?" He sees farming as a form of self-cultivation, not merely crop production.
What seeds does Thoreau wish to plant instead of beans in the future?
"Sincerity, truth, simplicity, faith, innocence, and the like" -- moral and spiritual virtues rather than agricultural crops.
How does Thoreau say modern farming differs from ancient husbandry?
Ancient husbandry was a sacred art with festivals honoring Ceres and Jove, but modern farmers sacrifice to "the infernal Plutus," degrading the landscape through avarice.
What does Thoreau mean by calling his field "the connecting link between wild and cultivated fields"?
His field is half-civilized, half-wild -- bridging untamed nature and over-commercialized agriculture, reflecting his own position between society and wilderness.
How does Thoreau use mock-heroic language to describe weeding?
He compares weeds to Trojans and describes them falling like Hector: "Many a lusty crest -- waving Hector, that towered a whole foot above his crowding comrades, fell before my weapon."
What is the significance of the Antaeus allusion?
Antaeus gained strength from contact with the earth. Thoreau writes his beans "attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus," linking physical labor in soil to spiritual vitality.
What is the purpose of the detailed financial ledger in the chapter?
It parodies the agricultural reports of "gentlemen farmers" like Mr. Coleman while also proving that simple, low-cost farming can yield a modest profit.
How does Thoreau use etymology as a literary device at the chapter's end?
He traces "spica" (ear of wheat) to "spe" (hope) and "granum" (grain) to "gerendo" (bearing), arguing that the true harvest is spiritual hope, not material grain.
What does "cinquefoil" refer to in the chapter?
A wild plant with five-lobed leaves that previously grew on Thoreau's land before he cultivated it for beans.
What does Thoreau mean by "pulse" when he says the land should "produce instead this pulse"?
Pulse refers to edible seeds of leguminous plants (beans, peas, lentils). He is replacing wild plants with cultivated legumes.
What does "tintinnabulum" mean in Thoreau's description of the town sounds?
A small tinkling bell. Thoreau references Virgil's advice to use a faint ringing sound on domestic utensils to call swarming bees back to their hive.
Complete the quote: "They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like..."
"...Antaeus." Thoreau compares the grounding power of working the soil to the mythological giant who drew power from contact with the earth.
What does Thoreau say about labor of the hands pursued to the verge of drudgery?
"Labor of the hands, even when pursued to the verge of drudgery, is perhaps never the worst form of idleness. It has a constant and imperishable moral."
What does Thoreau say about the farmer's relationship to Nature?
"He knows Nature but as a robber." Thoreau condemns the commercial farmer who views the land only as property or a means of acquiring property.