As we have seen, the final paragraph of the 1848 Franztal Gemeindebericht recounts in chronological order the key events of the village’s history since its establishment in 1820. Thus far we have learned of the millet crop of 1820, the poor harvests of 1821 and 1822, the locust plagues of 1823–1825, the harsh winter of 1825, and the famine and cattle epidemic of 1833.
This post begins with a notable event from 1838. As before, we repeat the entire paragraph before offering commentary.
Because of the late sowing, only a little millet was harvested in the first year. The following two summers yielded harvests of only three- to fourfold at high grain prices: 1 chetvert [?] rye cost 20 and wheat 24 paper rubles. In the three years that followed, the locusts destroyed blessed crops. The harsh winter of 1825 and the year 1833 with its famine and cattle epidemic are still fresh in the memory of the settlers. As a result of the earthquake on 11 January 1838, at half past ten in the evening, the water in the well has risen significantly. In 1838 the four-field system and fallow land were introduced. In 1845 there was no hay, only sowing of grain. The years 1846 and 1847 were blessed harvests, but on 17 June of last year a hailstorm destroyed the whole crop. The storm of 25 December 1847 to 16 January 1848 caused many houses to collapse, whereby the affected families came into great need.
earthquake on 11 January 1838, at half past ten in the evening. The earthquake mentioned here was not a strictly local event; in fact, four other Molotschna Gemeindeberichten mention this memorable event: Halbstadt, Muntau, Grossweide, and Mariental.
Even German villages in the surrounding area reported the earthquake in their own community reports. For example, Kirschwald in the Mariupol district was located roughly 50 miles northeast of Franztal. That village report stated: “The fearsome earthquake on 11 January 1838 at 9:00 in the evening caused no damage.” The nearby village of Rosengart reported: “The earthquake of 11 January 1838 passed without danger, yet many in those brief moments of fear awaited a dreadful future and looked with mournful glances at the earth’s shakings.” Schönbaum, in the same colony, stated: “The earthquake that took place on 11 January at 9:00 in the evening in 1838 lasted only a few minutes and did no harm.” Kronsdorf offered a largely similar report: “The earthquake of 11 January 1838 started here at 8:00 in the evening and lasted only a few minutes. Deeply shaken, one saw with mournful eyes and miserable gaze into the terrible future, but thank God, it passed without danger.” The Mariupol villages Rosenberg, Reichenberg, Elisabethdorf, and Bellagwesch gave roughly the same account. These villages were not Mennonite, being populated by German Lutherans and Catholics, yet their experiences as settlers in the Russian Empire were similar in many ways to those of our Mennonite forebears, and what we learn about them is frequently applicable to the main objects of our interest.
Although we will look at the other Molotschna reports in the next section, one is worth quoting here. The Halbstadt Gemeindebericht states: “On 11 January 1836 at 9:30 in the evening there was a strong earthquake here that caused no damage.” Note especially the year given in this report: 1836. All the other reports, Franztal included, agree that the year was 1838; Halbstadt’s variation serves as a good reminder that we dare not take a single report as representing the final truth of a matter. Humans make mistakes, and all facts must be checked before we can consider them confirmed.
the water in the well has risen significantly. The Franztal reports introduces an interesting result of the 1838 earthquake: the water in the well rose significantly. Before we discuss the rising water table, we must note that this is the first we have heard of a village well. When the village was founded, the people carried water from the river; clearly, however, sometime during the first eighteen years they dug a well that served their needs.
As a result of the earthquake, the water level rose significantly in Franztal’s well. Other Molotschna villages reported the same. Grossweide, a mile to Franztal’s northwest, wrote, “The water level is 7 to 10.5 Arschin [16–24 feet] deep and 3 Arschin [7 feet] higher since the earthquake of 1838 than it was before, but the earthquake damaged the condition of the water; it even got bitter in several wells.” So also Mariental, 5 miles southwest of Franztal: “The earthquake of 11 January 1838 meant that several of the 35- to 45-foot-deep wells collapsed, but since then the wells can be dug 10 feet shallower due to rising water levels.” Finally, Muntau reports, “The frightening earthquake of 11 January 1838, which broke out here at 9:30, had a pleasant consequence, in that the water in the wells has been higher since that time.” Clearly, in Franztal and other villages, the 1838 earthquake had a profound effect on the village wells.
four-field system. The year 1838 was also noteworthy for the introduction of the four-field system to Franztal. Other villages had actually begun to use the system the year prior, as reported by the Schönau Gemeindebericht: with “the four-field system, which was used from 1837 onwards, crops of ten- to twenty-fold are harvested with proper cultivation and favorable weather conditions.” The Petershagen report agrees and rightly attributes this development to the Agricultural Association under the leadership of Johann Cornies. Alexanderwohl and Altona also mention the four-field system as a significant advance on prior practices.
David Moon describes the development succinctly and clearly:
In 1837, Cornies ordered the Mennonites of Molotschna to introduce a four-field crop rotation in place of long-fallow agriculture. This was only four years after the “great drought” of 1833, and little over a decade after Molotschna had suffered from two successive harvest failures, caused in part by drought, in 1824 and 1825. Under the new rotation, each field followed the sequence: 1. Barley; 2. Spring wheat (girka or arnautka); 3. Winter rye or oats; and in the fourth year, the field was left fallow. Peter Köppen, an official of the Ministry of State Domains who inspected Tauride province in 1837, reported: “Out of 43 Mennonite colonies, 23 have already completed the introduction of four-field agriculture (vierfelder Wirtschaft).” He added that he had “invited” more Mennonites to follow suit in 1838. (Moon 2013, 253)
According to the Franztal report, they were one of those villages that followed suit in 1838.
fallow land. The mention of fallow land should not be taken to mean that the concept was unknown before 1838. In fact, farmers in that region practiced a long-fallow system in which they cultivated a plot of land until it was depleted, then left it fallow for fifteen years or more, after which it could be farmed again until it became unproductive, and so on (see Moon 2013, 111–13, 244, 252). The point of the reference to fallow land in this context is presumably to highlight the fact that allowing land to lie fallow every fourth year was part of the regular crop rotation.
We are nearing the end of the Franztal Gemeindebericht, but the events of several years remain to be discussed. We will take them up in the following post.
Work Cited
Moon, David. 2013. The Plough That Broke the Steppes: Agriculture and Environment on Russia’s Grasslands, 1700–1914. Oxford Studies in Modern European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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