The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1909-08-26
LIFE PICTURES
FOR FARMERS
UNCLE SAM WILL GIVE MOVING
VIEWS.
Observation-Disclosures
BY MOVING PICTURES TAKEN At
EXPERIMENT STATIONS.

hS ShitSu CtdtVS uNPoi lhiCht VI
agriculture is In the moving picture
business, says Washington dispatch.
Not that 1t operates, or contem-
plates operating, string Of fve-cent
theatres, nor syndicate films where
upon are depicted everything from
slap-stick comedies to sobby senti-
mentalities, nor hopes to give the
Great American Farmer the uplift in
the drama via the motion picture
route-not by any means. The de-
partment is simply entering the field
because far-sighted Uncle "Tama
Jim" Wilson, secretary of agriculture,
believes he can by it's aid bring home
to the farmers of the country the
necessity for modern methods In
agriculture.
1t has always been hard to make
the farmers Of the country under
stand from mere description how to
handle their crops in this new era of
agriculture The average man ON
the farm doesn't take kindly to ad-
vice he hears or reads-he wants WIS.,
ual proof of the soundness of things
He sticks to the old ways until he ac-
tually sees the advantage of the new.
1t Is for this reason that the de-
partment is now adopting the motion
picture machine to educate the farm
er. Films will be made at the var
ious experiment stations throughout
the country showing the new order
of things in the way of preparing the
land, planting, cultivating, harvesting
and handling of the crop, how to make
roads, how to breed cattle. horses.
sheep and farm animals, and the thou
sand and one tasks that occupy farm
ers. BY exhibiting these films at
popular meetings of farmers all over
the country, the department hopes to
give them actual, visual, convincing
proof that the old order changeth,
giving place to new, and that the
new agriculture means better crops,
better farms, better roads, and better
animals. - swsss,s
cooperative arrangement -
now in formation. whereby the de-
partment will send its moving pic
ture-taking machines to the various
experiment stations throughout the
country and there photograph the on-
erations on these model farms. The
films will be developed at Washing
ton, and duplicates will be furnished
to such of the formers organizations
as desire them for exhibit at agricul-
tural meetings-the experimental
semigovernmental agencies owning
the machines which reproduce the
films.
In this way the department of agri-
culture will soon be a sort of clear
ing house Of films on agricultural
subiedts-a sort of moving picture
syndicate, which will produce and
distribute films for exhibition among
farmers all over the country. Then,
too, the farmers institutes in the
several states will become subsidi-
airy distributing points for reels
1t is a brand new idea in the cam
paign which the department has been
waging for years to educate the farm
er. Not only that, but it is a brand
new idea for any government depart
ment to own a motion picture ma
chine or loan films. The navy de-
partment, it is true, has for some
time been making use of motion pic
lures to portray life aboard ship, in
their campaign for recruits to the
naval service. The assumption was
that the pictures-which were taken
by concern principally known for
it's production of popular" reels
would excite the interest of young
men as a truthful portrayal Of A life
on the bounding ocean wave. The
pictures were shown in connection
with lecture given by recruiting
officer. That they have been emin-
emily successful is beyond doubt.
Still, the navy department wasn't
actually in the business of making
the pictures. The department of agri-
culture is.