Planting and harvesting

On the way home from the cities one day last summer, Mog and I noticed something interesting about a corn field.  The first few rows of corn were harvested all the way around, as far as we could tell.  We speculated, as you do, about why.  Maybe to allow more air circulation to help dry the crop...or maybe the farmer was getting low on feed for the cows, that could be it.  Hmm, maybe the outside was the least productive or something...none of it seemed right, because we saw another field like that, and two more.  With a mighty shoulder shrug, we figured we'd find out the real reason eventually.

So hooray! Mog called this morning and had the answer.  She's been at her sisters house, and happened to talk with a farmer friend.  He said no, none of the above ☺.  He said you plant the straight rows and turn around at the end of the field, within the field.  Then the last pass is around the outside of the whole field.  

In the fall, you harvest that outside ring first, so again, you can turn around within the field.  Isn't that cool?

A bit later, Larry and I were talking on IM, surprise! ☺.  I told him the crop saga, and he was suitably impressed.  It reminded him of the biblical admonition to save the corners for the poor.  Wha...?  I must have missed that chapter:

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner"  Leviticus 23:22

I said "Huh?" and Larry mentioned the painting by Jean-Francois Millet called The Gleaners (here's the zoomable version--I highly recommend it).    

The more we talked about the story in the painting, the more familiar it seemed.  There are upwards of 20 men in the background, harvesting shocks of grain--stacking them on the wagon to be piled on the--wow, there are 12 or so mountains of shocks.  There's an overseer on a horse, and farm buildings in the way-background.  Three women are picking up the leftovers in the foreground.

Which relative had this print on their wall? Look at the small, snug bundles behind the women, and the bend in their backs.  One online description of the painting said the women were well-dressed and healthy looking, as tho this was a lark for them, just something to pass the afternoon.  But no--zoom in--these women need every kernel.  I doubt they thought of the landowner as particularly generous....and then, you know, this scene happened all over Europe in those years, and definitely in Bohemia.  Wow, these really are the values we grew up with, if you ignore the dire poverty part:  "Work together"..."Get all you can"..."Don't whine"...."A little sweat never hurt anybody"...."work is noble"..."waste not, want not"

...it's your own fault if you go hungry because it's there to be gleaned...

Our Luxemburg Mohimonts

Once again, Google comes thru for us!  The days of guessing where a name might show up in a book or newspaper are long gone, here online...and certainly, we never would even have looked for the name Mohimont in the Dewey Decimal System.  But, how do they *connect?  Who were the Mohimonts?

Angelique Mohimont was the mother of Angelique (Stoltz) SAND, back in Schoenfels and Kehlen, Luxembourg.  She lived from 1810 to sometime after 1857.  (Angelique Stoltz was my great great grandmother, wife of Peter Sand).

But, why are we interested in Angelique Mohimont in particular?  Because *googling 'Mohimont, Stoltz' found a book, written in French, in the Havard Law Library with hits on both names, on the same pages. (Dewey would NEVER have found it!)

I copied the original pages and sent them thru a free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) service  which 'converts the text from the image into text that you can easily edit on your computer'.  YAY!

But Larry noticed an option on the book page-- "Plain Text"--that does what the OCR did, only better.
The text there is easy to copy and paste into Google Translate with a French-to-English setting. 
Wow--it's a pretty clear translation:

"Stoltz - Kaldarar - Mohimont.

Facts:
 By act of the notary Molhe received September 9, 1834, the late Captain Charles-Melchior Mohimont during his lifetime for the Austrian Army, died Kœnigsgrœtz, Bohemia, April 23, 1840, assigned to Angelique Mohimont, assisted and authorized her husband Peter Stoltz, miller, Dondelange for a sum of 16,200 francs, all property rights belonging to the estate of her deceased father and mother, subjects of Luxembourg.
The transfer price has been paid to the transferor a sum of 10,870 francs as 11 July 1838 and earlier.
In his will record erected in the presence of four witnesses in accordance with Austrian law, Captain Mohimont established the al Kaldarar universal heirs.
These, by writ of 6 August 1855, gave command to Stoltz spouses, their pay the sum of 6580 francs. for the outstanding principal of the purchase price, that of 4880 fr. for accrued interest from July 11, 1838 until May 21, 1855, finally the costs of execution ready".

From what we can tell, the dispute had to do with an estate and the use of the chapel as a local church, but I could be wrong. Talking it over, Larry and I think it could have been a precedent-setting case.  I've translated most of the proceedings, but c'mon, its all legalese.  Hard to tell who won for sure.

The trial took place in 1857.

Hmm......was it coincidence that Angeliques daughter and her family arrived in NYC in November 1857?  Perhaps some of the money had been used to pay for the trip.  We don't KNOW, but it's interesting to speculate, no?


ADDED MUCH LATER:


Larry found this announcement in a Luxemburgh newspaper from May, 1891:

"Rospelt, 24 Mai: Diesen abend starb zu Dondelingen die wohlachtbare Dame Angelika Stolz , geb Mohimont; im alter 80 jahren.  Sie war zeitlebens eine recht glaubige, einfache und
allseitig geschasste Person. Sie Ruhe in Frieden!"
............................
I goofed on some letters, cuz the last bit, translated, doesn't make sense.  It was probably something about her belief in God and her goodness....


"Rospelt, 24 May:This evening died in Dondelinger the most respectable lady Angela Stoltz, born Mohimont; 80 years old.  She was quite a believers life, simple and all sides ousted person. They rest in peace!"


Thanks AGAIN to Larry ☺