Chapter 27 Economics - 22

Every New Englander could easily produce his own bread-stuffs on this land suitable for growing rye and Indian corn, without being dependent on distant and fluctuating markets.Yet we lived with neither simplicity nor independence, and in Concord fresh sweet corn meal was scarcely available in the shops, and cornflakes and coarser corn were scarcely eaten.The farmers fed a large part of the corn they produced to the cattle and hogs, and bought flour, not necessarily healthier, from the shops, at a greater cost.I saw that I could easily produce my bushel or two of rye and Indian corn meal, the former growing on the poorest ground, and the latter not needing the best soil, which could be ground by hand, Can live without rice or pork: if I must have some saccharine, I find that I can also make a good syrup from pumpkin or beetroot, as long as I add sugar can make sugar easier Come; and if these were still growing, I could substitute many substitutes for the few things already mentioned. "Because," our ancestors sang,—

"We can use pumpkin, walnut and parsnip Come to make wine, to sweeten our lips. " Lastly, as for salt, the most miscellaneous of groceries, finding it might have been a fitting occasion for a trip to the sea, or, if it were not used at all, perhaps a little less boiling water.I don't know if the Indians have bothered to get salt Thus I avoided all business and barter, at least as far as food was concerned, and having a house already, it remained only a matter of clothing and fuel.The pair of trousers I now wear were woven in a farmer's house—thank God, there are so many virtues in man; same;--and fuel is a big drag when you're new to a country.As for the habitat, if I am not allowed to live in this uninhabited place, I can buy an acre for the price of the land I have cultivated,-that is, eight dollars and eight anise.However, the fact is that I think I have greatly increased the value of the land by living here.

Some unconvinced people sometimes ask me questions such as whether I think I can live only on vegetables; in order to say at once the essence of things,—for essence is faith—I often answer like this, Say I eat planks The nails on it can live on.If they don't even understand that, they won't understand, no matter what I say.For my part, I would be glad to hear of experiments of this kind being made; it seems that a young man tried for a fortnight to live on hard corn with the husks on, using only his teeth for mortars.The squirrel tried it, and it worked.Humanity is interested in such experiments, though the few old women who are deprived of this right, or who own a third of their dead husband's estate in a flour mill, may be startled.

My furniture, which I made partly myself—the rest cost me little, but I have not kept account of—consisted of a bed, a table, three stools, a mirror three inches in diameter, a pair of tongs, and a wood stand, a pot, a saucepan, a frying-pan, a spoon, a washbasin, two knives and forks, three plates, a cup, a spoon, an oil-pot, and A treacle jar, and a Japanese-painted lamp.Nobody is so poor that they have to sit on a pumpkin.That's a lazy way.On the village pavilion are some of my favorite chairs; just grab them and it's yours.furniture!Thank goodness.I can sit and I can stand without the help of a furniture company.Who, but a philosopher, would not be ashamed to see his furniture in a car, in broad daylight, before the eyes of all, and nothing but empty boxes that do not attract much attention?This is Spalding's furniture.Looking at the furniture, I could not tell whether it belonged to a so-called rich man or a poor man; its owner always seemed to be very poor.Really, the more of this stuff, the poorer you are.Each cart is like the contents of a dozen huts; and if one shanty is poor, it is twelve times poorer.Why do we move so often, you say, instead of throwing away some of our furniture, our sloughs; leaving this world for a world with new furniture, and burning the old?Just as a man has all the traps on his belt, and when he moves through the moors where we have ropes, he cannot help dragging those ropes—into his own traps.The fox that left the broken tail in the trap was very lucky.A muskrat would rather bite off its third leg in order to escape.No wonder man has lost his flexibility.How many times has he come to a dead end! "If you will excuse my abruptness, sir, what do you mean by dead end?" If you are an observant man, any time you meet a man, you know there is something about him, well, and his A lot of things that he pretends not to have, you can even know the furniture in his kitchen and all the beautiful and impractical things, but he wants to keep these things, and he is unwilling to burn them, as if he is being pulled in Above, they are all dragging them forward.When a man slips through a knot, or through a door, while a load of furniture behind him cannot get through, I say he is at a dead end.When I hear a well-dressed, solid-looking man, who seems quite free, who seems to have everything in order, to speak of his "furniture," whether insured or not, I cannot but pity him. "What about my furniture?" My joyful butterfly, now in a spider's web.There is even a man who for years seems to have had no furniture to bother him, but, if you question him carefully, you will find that some of his furniture is stored under someone's shed.I look at England today, like an old gentleman traveling with a lot of luggage, all of which are accumulated after living in a house for a long time, and he has no courage to burn them: Big boxes, small boxes, suitcases, and packages.At least throw away the first three.Now, not even a man in good health would lift his bed and go on the road.Naturally I would advise some sick people to abandon their beds and run.When I meet an immigrant staggering along with all his possessions in a big bundle—the bundle looks like a big tumor on the back of his neck—I pity him, not because he has only one A little bit, but because he had to run away with it all.If I have to run with my trap, at least I can carry a lighter one.A single shot will not bite the most important part of me.However, the smartest way is never to put your palm in the trap.