Mid-Day Rest

Artist: William Frederick Witherington, 1785-1865

Title:     Mid-Day Rest, Harvest

Work Type:      Painting

Date:    ca. 1840

Material:   Oil on board

Measurements: 8 x 11 1/2 inches

William Frederick Witherington, born in London in 1785, painted Mid-Day Rest in 1840. It is an oil painting on board. The painting depicts a harvest where many people are working together. The brush strokes are nearly invisible when viewing a picture of the painting. Witherington usually painted with short brush strokes and with thick paint but there is no description of this painting. The colors are soft and muted, yellows, and gray-blues, with a little touch of red. Some of the laborers are resting in the forefront, a man is drinking from a cask, a woman is holding a baby, and in the background some figures are continuing to work. There is a pile of what might be shirts or coats that have been discarded during the day. The clouds are darkening; a storm appears to be coming that produces a certain feeling of pressure to finish the work. Bundles of wheat or grain are tied together in the center of the painting. The horse, cart, and driver is gathering the bundles slowly. The laborers are men, women, and children, though their faces aren’t detailed. 

The painting reminded me of the early pioneers in America though the artist is British and the unknown subjects are peasants.  I chose this painting because it depicts the values that I think farmers still possess today; hard working people with their families and children, all laboring together until the job is done. The values of a farmer are reliability and honesty and their children grow up with a strong sense of family and hard work. 

Works Cited

Witherington, William Frederick. Mid-Day Rest Harvest. 1840. ARTstor Collection: Yale Center

 for British Art. Paul Mellon Collection. Access 28 Mar. 2015

Agricultural Film Review

A Thousand Acres (1997)

Director: Jocelyn Moorehouse

USA

Running time: 106 minutes

Summary: The film is based on the novel, A Thousand Acres, written by Jane Smiley. The novel was based on Shakespeare’s King Lear. The story is set in 1980 and is about Larry Cook and his three adult daughters, Ginny, Rose and Caroline. The oldest two girls and the father each have a house on the one thousand acres in Iowa. Caroline is a lawyer and moved away from the farm, but visits often. Cook is proud and quick to remind people that the farm has been in the family for three generations. The family attends a gathering at the neighbor, Harold Clark’s, house to celebrate the return of his son. At the party Harold shows off a brand new tractor. Cook surprises his girls by announcing that he is ready to retire and divides the land into three equal parts giving it to his daughters and their husbands to manage. Soon after the transaction is complete Cook begins acting irritated and regrets his decision. Ginny’s husband and Rose’s husband search for Cook one night when the girls suspect their father is drinking and driving. Cook, drunk and belligerent, argues with the two men and stumbles off into the dark during a storm. The fight over the property divides the family as Caroline sides with Cook combating against Rose and Ginny. The hearing reveals the possibility that the aging Cook might have memory problems and he and his daughter, Caroline, loose the law suit against the other two sisters and Cook moves in with Caroline. There is underlying tension from Rose and Ginny as they discuss their father and sexual abuse they experienced in their teens. Rose’s husband dies in a car accident and Rose reveals an affair to Ginny, who also had an affair with the same man. Ginny leaves the farm and her husband. She ends up working as a waitress and lives in the city in a small apartment. Ginny returns when she finds out that Rose is dealing with breast cancer for a second time.  Rose asks Ginny to take her teenage daughters because she realizes she isn’t going to survive. Ginny and Caroline are forced to sell the farm and Cook dies of a heart attack the next year.

Analysis: The setting is typical Iowa farms with fields of corn and wheat rising and falling on the horizon. The film feeds into the cliché of the American ideal of farming with the families all living in white clapboard houses with large porches and shady yards. There is an excess of over-sized shirts and flowery print dresses. The men drive trucks and the women cook and clean while wearing aprons.  Cook is obviously upset when Harold, the neighbor, shows off his shiny new tractor. The tractor represents the advancement of farming on a larger scale and is a forewarning that change is coming. During the 1980’s farmers in America experienced high debt loads and low crop prices.  The results were catastrophic to family farms. The Cook family experiences their share of the farm crises of the 1980’s and eventually loses the farm selling it to pay off debts. One underlying theme of the movie is the sexual abuse of Rose and Ginny, by their father, that triggers strong emotions that cause more turmoil for the family. At the end of the film Ginny reveals that the houses will be torn down to make way for more fields  which epitomizes the end of an era of wealthy farmers as small farms are being bought up by large corporations using more modern methods of agriculture while pushing out the old-fashioned farmers.

Works Cited

A Crisis in Agriculture on the Great Plains. NebraskaStudies.org. accessed 15 Mar. 2015. Web.

A Thousand Acre. Dir. Jocelyn Moorehouse. Perf. Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange. Mill Creek Entertainment. 1997. DVD.

The Farm Bill and Me

  Created in 1933 the Agricultural Adjustment Act provided subsidies to U.S. farmers during the Great Depression and became the basis for what is The Farm Bill today (Snap). There was a surplus of seven main crops and the government paid farmers to stop growing these crops in hopes that the demand would increase the price of the staple crops and thereby help farmers make a profit. The Act also made provisions to support farmers during droughts and other difficult times, and included legislation on conservation and storage of surplus (Snap).

picture from SnaptoHealth.com

 Food Stamps and Child Nutrition is the largest part of the Farm Bill. Over 79% of the Farm Bill budget goes to Food stamps and nutrition, part of that is the school lunch program (Farm). Low income families are eligible for reduced price or free school lunches. It supports the food banks and provides job training in hopes that the families can eventually support themselves. I am concerned about the children that are not getting enough to eat. Food Stamps and School Lunches are essential programs to help people that are struggling. These programs are for occurrences and not as a means of life-long support. My mom found herself alone with eight children at home and no income, no child support. She was a stay at home mom and hadn’t had a job since high school 24 years earlier. She acquired two part time jobs and food stamps and tried to support her family in that way for a few years… It wasn’t working. My mom applied for college grants, kept her part time jobs and started going to school in her forties. With-in five years she had a job as a school teacher and was able to support our family without any government help. She is a welfare recipient success story!  This is how the program is supposed to work. I am proud to say that during her 26 year career as a school teacher my mom paid off her house, and is debt free and is now retired.
The Farm Bill was set up to help Americans when the need arises. Food Stamps do help families and

I think more needs to be done to help low income families to support themselves.                    

 Works Cited

Snap to Health. Farm Bill and USDA: Frequently Asked Questions. Aetna Foundation. Access 27 Feb. 2015. Web.