Literary notes about Crop (AI summary)
In literature, the word "crop" is deployed with a remarkable range of meanings. Frequently, it denotes an agricultural yield, quantifying the outcome of carefully managed land—from Jefferson’s detailed measurements of a wheat-crop ([1], [2], [3]) to accounts of abundant harvests of barley and coffee that drive economic narratives ([4], [5]). At the same time, the term takes on metaphorical nuances: it can refer to a “crop” of short hair, subtly characterizing physical appearance ([6]), or emerge in legal and financial contexts as a form of collateral, as seen in discussions of crop and chattel mortgages ([7]). This multiplicity of uses underscores the word’s adaptability, bridging literal sustenance with broader, often symbolic, aspects of human life.
- On the plot that receives no manure of any kind, the crop, for twenty years, averaged 16¼ bushels per acre.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - On leaving Meiboh at 4 a.m. we passed for a considerable distance through land under cultivation, the crop being principally wheat.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - “A crop of wheat of 30 bushels per acre,” continued the Doctor, “contains in the grain about 26 lbs.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - I was now, in the months of November and December, expecting my crop of barley and rice.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - Ten years later, 25,000,000 pounds were produced; and the crop of 1918–19 was estimated at about 30,000,000 pounds.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - He passed his fingers through his crop of short hair, and pressed them one at a time on the glass.
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - The security offered for such transactions—a crop and chattel mortgage—may at first seem slight.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
