{
 "schema": "nephos.method.v1",
 "slug": "biehle-wheatfield-zoar-1920",
 "title": "August F. Biehle Jr., Wheatfield in Zoar (1920)",
 "urls": [
  "/studies/biehle-wheatfield-zoar-1920"
 ],
 "written": {
  "summary": "Nephos’s reading of the picture, not a museum statement: cut wheat stands in shocks across stubble, with leafy trees, a house and red roofs behind a fair-looking field. It suggests the days after cutting, while shocks dried. The catalogue establishes 1920; the depicted harvest stage does not date a painting session.",
  "items": [
   {
    "quote": "Wheatfield in Zoar",
    "source": "Canton Museum of Art, accession 86.18; date field: 1920",
    "url": "https://www.cantonartcollection.com/itemdetail.php?work_id=1816"
   },
   {
    "quote": "Harvest progressed northward during the week to the southern portions of Nebraska and Iowa and central Ohio.",
    "source": "USDA, week ending 6 July 1920; Chronicle, 10 July, p. 206",
    "url": "https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/cfc/cfc_19200710.pdf#page=92"
   }
  ]
 },
 "records": [
  {
   "name": "Four contemporary harvest reports",
   "detail": "Weeks ending 6, 13, 20 and 27 July: harvest reaches central Ohio, rain delays work, and harvest approaches completion across the central/eastern belt. Regional reports, not a Zoar farm diary.",
   "url": "https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/cfc/cfc_19200710.pdf#page=92"
  },
  {
   "name": "Dover’s daily rain and monthly summary",
   "detail": "George E. Fertig’s printed July 1920 record, checked against NOAA’s digitized copy. Morning readings cover the preceding 24 hours; dotted cells stay unassigned.",
   "url": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/nerms/api/document/4C966B45F81A4A8B9F5A61C4B9DBEBFD/download"
  },
  {
   "name": "Modern July comparisons",
   "detail": "New Philadelphia’s 1991–2020 July normal and Ohio’s 2020 crop progress. Separate places, periods and measures; no merged station series or trend.",
   "url": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/normals-monthly/1991-2020/access/USC00335894.csv"
  }
 ],
 "gaps": [
  "The exact field, cutting date, painted day and outdoor/studio sequence are unestablished.",
  "No verified county cutting date, Zoar-field eyewitness or artist weather letter was found in the accessed sources; archival absence is not claimed.",
  "No open licence for the painting image was established; the museum image is linked."
 ],
 "tests": [
  {
   "claim": "Did rain interrupt the regional wheat-harvest period?",
   "result": "Yes. USDA reports describe delays; Dover has 8 measurable entries totalling 2.97 inches (75.4 mm) in the 14 printed dates from 7–20 July. This tests repeated nearby wetting, not the moisture of the painted shocks."
  },
  {
   "claim": "Does fair-looking weather conflict with that sequence?",
   "result": "No conflict is established. A fair-looking moment can sit within a rain-interrupted season. The records do not verify the painted sky or supply its date."
  },
  {
   "claim": "How does the season compare with modern records?",
   "result": "Dover’s published July total is 4.54 inches; New Philadelphia’s separate modern July normal is 3.90 inches, based on 13 available years with NOAA estimates for missing months. Ohio had harvested 51% of winter wheat by 5 July 2020, against a 2015–2019 average of 41%. These are seasonal comparisons, not climate trends."
  },
  {
   "claim": "Can the records say which weather Biehle changed?",
   "result": "No dated preparatory state or field observation supports that claim. The arrangement of shocks, trees and roofs is discussed as Nephos’s visual interpretation."
  }
 ],
 "finding": "Nephos reads cut wheat standing in shocks to dry. Contemporary reports place the regional harvest in July; Dover recorded 8 measurable rain entries totalling 2.97 inches during 7–20 July. The fair-looking scene fits a rain-interrupted harvest, without identifying its day.",
 "verdicts": [
  {
   "claim": "Regional harvest interrupted by rain",
   "verdict": "Partially agrees",
   "reason": "Contemporary reports and repeated nearby gauge amounts support this seasonal finding."
  },
  {
   "claim": "Painted day and weather at the field",
   "verdict": "Unknown",
   "reason": "Neither the crop-report geography nor Dover’s gauge resolves the particular scene."
  }
 ],
 "limits": [
  "Dover is nearby, not the pictured field. Blank rain amounts are not measured dry days; clear-day and rain-day counts overlap. New Philadelphia’s normal is representative (R), with NOAA estimates from surrounding stations. Historical cutting progress and modern harvested percentages cannot measure a shift in harvest date."
 ]
}