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But these two elude me. Has anyone any idea why are they there? OK, perhaps the later means 'no embroidery', no embelishments, just strict, functional and austere clothing (and they didn't have polymers )... But crops?
Ok, this is totally off the cuff and I don't have time to research it, so let me give some background and then take a "not-quite-thoroughly-informed" answer.

The first thing to point out is that this is from the OT law. That’s not to say it wasn’t there for a purpose, but it must be put into context to make sense. The purpose of the OT law was for the Israelites alone (meaning it should not be carried over into any other society’s rules) so that they would be set apart and reveal God to the world around them. If you look at the OT law, there are multiple aspects to the laws. Some laws were about worship practices (sacrifice x animal in y way to atone for z sin). There is nothing “moral” about sacrificing an animal a certain way, but it was pleasing to God because that was how He dictated it be done. Others were simply to help order in society (resolve disputes over x by doing y). Still others revealed aspects of how God defines morality. Some are combinations of various aspects, and while Christians today can draw cues from the law (such as that homosexual behavior is a sin), we don’t go around doing all of the things Bartlett suggested because the law was specifically for the Israelites at that time. In fact, the overriding purpose of the law was to show us that we cannot be as righteous as God dictates and so we need His mercy.

Regarding the specific two things above (garments and crops), a HUGE issue with the Israelites is that they were “God’s chosen people”, meaning that they were set apart specifically for the purpose of revealing God to all nations. To that end, much more was expected from them than any other nation (incidentally this is the reason they had some super-strict laws with super-strict consequences). It was important that the Israelites remember their special status and special responsibilities, so God gave them many symbols to remember that they were to remain set apart in their actions. These symbols did not define morality in and of themselves; the “moral” aspect was remembering their identity as a chosen race. I’m guessing that the practice of keeping crops and garment threads separated was symbolic worship practices in this vein.

If I have time I’ll do a little research into the context and see how close I am.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.