Produced by the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois, this 1944 film shows farm life in northern Illinois during wartime. The film is broken into a number of sections (dairy, beef, sheep, hog, poultry, truck farming, ideas at work, youth, and family) and looks at the ways the various farming families of northern Illinois use electric-powered machines to enhance their productivity and improve quality of life during wartime. The film opens with a montage of shots of a number of northern Illinois farms. Two horses pull a farmer on a wagon (01:57). A woman digs soil in a small plot. At a dairy farm, herds graze, and the film shows some of the different breeds of dairy cows. A border collie herds cows (03:40), moving the animals through an electric doorway sprayer at the entrance to a barn. The farmer’s wife and daughter feed calves. A young boy pulls a sprayer past the cows inside the barn. The farmer milks cows (05:05), and a woman from the dairy association dumps the milk into a combination cooler after measuring the output. An automatic milk stirrer moves the milk in the cooler (06:22). At another farm, a farmer operates an electric manure hoist (07:24). The farmer uses a pneumatic sprayer to quickly spray his cattle. Holstein bulls are tethered to an “exerciser” and walk in a circle (08:22). The film then looks at some beef farms. Beef cattle graze in a field (08:44), and the film gives viewers a look at some of the different types of beef bulls, including an angus bull. A motor pushes feed into a truck bed (09:32). Out in the field, farmers shovel feed from the truck bed. Next, viewers see another border collie herding sheep (10:10). A farmer puts a lamb under a brooder. Elsewhere, two men fix a lamb brooder (11:28). A sheep has its wool shorn with electric shears. At a high school, students build a pig brooder (12:21). A man feeds his hogs in a barn. High school students learn to vaccinate a piglet. The film then shows a man walking by several chicken coups. A chicken farmer uses an electric feed mixer. Chicks gather around an electric brooder. A man uses an automatic feather picker to clean a dead chicken (15:16). A boy pours feed for a dozen chickens then collects their eggs (16:05). In the “Truck Farming” section of the film, viewers see men use two 5-hp motor pumps to irrigate farmland (16:45), including a cabbage field. Men use a conveyer belt to load cabbage onto a truck. The film then moves to the “Ideas at Work” section. A small motor moves an elevator, lifting bales of hay into a barn. A man uses a forge to heat metal (18:40). Another man demonstrates a homemade seed inoculator (19:10). A truck tows a portable elevator (19:50); a man shovels corn onto the elevator which moves it into a truck. A 1-hp grinder grinds feed and moves it into a storage area ready for sacking (20:57). Another farmer uses a small portable motor to mix concrete (21:44); men pour concrete for a flat feeding ground. In the “Youth” section, students learn to use a grinder in a vo-ag classroom (22:50). The students then build a chicken feeder with a heated water container. The film shows inside a farm family’s home (24:00), where a grandmother looks at the food canned by the wife and daughter. A woman sews a 4-H project (25:00). A 4-H winner poses with his Holstein and 1st-place plaque. At the McHenry County 4-H Club Achievement Show, 4-H participants show cows (25:40). The last section of the film is on family. Viewers see a farm house (26:10); they also see a recently constructed tiled shower. A woman cans food (27:07), and another woman dehydrates spinach and carrots. The film concludes with a montage of shots of the motors used in farm life, of farm land and livestock, and a final shot of children playing at a small playground.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com