《瓦尔登湖·第一章·经济篇·Economy》第46节
Before I finished my house, wishing to earn ten or twelve dollars by some honest and agreeable method, in order to meet my unusual expenses, I planted about two acres and a half of light and sandy soil near it chiefly with beans, but also a small part with potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips. The whole lot contains eleven acres, mostly growing up to pines and hickories, and was sold the preceding season for eight dollars and eight cents an acre. One farmer said that it was “good for nothing but to raise cheeping squirrels on.” I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter, and not expecting to cultivate so much again, and I did not quite hoe it all once. I got out several cords of stumps in ploughing, which supplied me with fuel for a long time, and left small circles of virgin mould, easily distinguishable through the summer by the greater luxuriance of the beans there. The dead and for the most part unmerchantable wood behind my house, and the driftwood from the pond, have supplied the remainder of my fuel. I was obliged to hire a team and a man for the ploughing, though I held the plough myself. My farm outgoes for the first season were, for implements, seed, work, &c., $14.72½. The seed corn was given me. This never costs anything to speak of, unless you plant more than enough. I got twelve bushels of beans, and eighteen bushels of potatoes, beside some peas and sweet corn. The yellow corn and turnips were too late to come to any thing. My whole income from the farm was $ 23.44 | Deducting the outgoes,........... 14.72½ | ———— | There are left,................. $ 8.71½, 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.
注释摘要
梭罗在这里摆出了一份精确到半美分的账目，这在整个《经济篇》里是篇幅最长的微观试验报告。他种了两英亩半豆子，兼带些马铃薯、玉米、豌豆和萝卜，整片地十一英亩，上一年售价每英亩八块零八分。他用了当地农民的一句轻蔑话——这地"除了养点吱吱叫的松鼠什么用也没有"——来反衬自己连肥都没施、锄地也只草草一逼，却还是收了十二蒲式耳豆子和十八蒲式耳马铃薯，刨去十四块七毛二的…