Captain Quest (1953)

[Music] Captain Quest and his junior explorers. Journey to distant lands and learn of things both strange and real. Explore the world. [Music] Aoy, Captain Quest. >> Hi there, junior explorers. Come aboard, Jane. Tommy, well, you're just in time. I'm about to go on another expedition. >> Where are you going, Captain Q? >> I'm going to do some fast traveling to many parts of the world, Jame. First, I want to go to a rope ranch. How about it? You want to come with me? We do want to go with you. >> Is it a strange kind of place, Captain Q? >> Yes, Tommy. A rope farm is a mighty strange place, but of course they they don't grow rope as we know it. They they just grow the material from which ropes are made. After that, we're going to go to a snake farm. There they really raise snakes. >> Oh, this is going to be a wonderful expedition. This is what I call real adventure. Well, sometimes people need a a special product that can only be raised in in one part of the world. That's why we have many unusual farms. Discovering those farms is a real adventure. >> We want to explore everything in the world. That's why we are Junior Explorers, Captain Q. >> Well, we can't explore every unusual farm in the world. Not this time. But I picked out a few that should provide us with some exciting experiences. In countries with hot climates, there are coconut farms or plantations as they call them. The coconut is one of the most useful plants in the world. Besides producing a nourishing and tasty fruit, people get oil, soap, many other products from it. Finally, I'm going to take you to a fish farm. There they raise trout, not only to sell as food, but to stock lakes and rivers for sport. So, let's get started. Junior Explorers, our first stop is at Port Elizabeth in South Africa. Here we'll explore one of the most unusual and dangerous farms in the world, the snake farm. Yes, they raise some of the deadliest snakes on Earth here. Pup adders, the cobra, the mambber, the African wounds slang, and almost every poisonous variety known. A bite by one of these can mean death, but the attendant handles them fearlessly. Don't let this fool you, though. Long experience has given him the skill of an expert. I wouldn't advise you junior explorers to get this close to a snake. Visitors to this unusual farm are welcome. A special place has been set aside from which we can see everything in perfect safety. [Music] The snakes, some of them brought here from far off places, are exhibited by the attendant, who also explains why such an unusual farm is needed. Now, strange as it may seem, the best cure for a bite by a poisonous snake is a medicine made from the poison of the snake itself. That's the reason for this farm. Here the snakes are milked regularly. That is the poison is taken from them. Thousands of people are helped every year by the medicine made from this snake poison. The attendant shows the visitors how a snake strikes, letting it bite him. Watch that snake as it sinks its fangs into his right sleeve. No harm done. The jacket is made of thick, tough material and the teeth can't go through it. To show the snakes's deadly fangs, the attendant forces open the jaws. It takes about 50 snakes to supply just one ounce of poison, and handling each one is a dangerous job. [Music] Milking or extracting the poison is a simple process if you know how. A glass is placed under the fangs. The poison sacks just back of the head are then squeezed to force the venom out. It's an unusual farm and an unusual crop, but it's needed to save the lives of people. And so in far off South Africa, we discover a snake farm. Now, junior explorers, let's visit a coconut farm. The coconut is the source of food and wealth to the people living in lands with hot, moist climates. When ready for harvesting, a native climbs to the top of the tree and cuts down the ripe coconuts. [Music] Later, the nuts are gathered and brought to the husking yard. And here on a sharp steel spike fixed in the ground, the green outer husk of the nut is ripped off. [Music] The nut is then passed on for the next operation where it's cut neatly into halves. Finally, the coconuts are dried either in the hot sun or by baking in a special kil. From the coconut tree, the people get wood for houses and furniture. From the leaves, baskets and fatching for roofs. The fibers from the husk are woven into ropes, mats, and sandals. The nut itself gives food, oil, soap, feed for cattle, many more products. Without doubt, the coconut tree is the most valuable tree in all of the tropical world. From [Music] tropic lands, let's head north, junior explorers, to the low, cold, swampy areas of Jutland, Denmark. This was once wasteland, but now it's been turned into something very unusual, a fish farm. The seeds the farmer uses here are fish eggs. Millions of them. Eventually, these eggs turn into tiny fish. The small fry are placed in ponds where they grow rapidly and safely. For there are no big fish to eat up the little ones. When they've grown bigger, the young fish, or fingerlings, as they're called, are taken out again and moved to still larger ponds. [Music] Every day they are fed chopped beef or horse meat. Strangely enough, these little fishes soon learn the time for feeding. They wait at the side of the pond from which the food is thrown to them. [Music] As they begin to reach their full growth, year by year, they are moved to even bigger ponds where they have plenty of room to grow. Finally, they're big enough to take care of themselves. And that's when they're netted out and loaded into tanks to be shipped to their final homes, a fish market, or a lake or a stream to provide a meal for someone or sport for a fisherman. Hard work and ingenious ideas have turned useless land into a prosperous and unusual farm. [Music] From North Europe, we sail to Kenya land in Africa. Junior explorers, I want to show you a rope farm or rope ranch. From the sea coast, we go inland over dirt roads through a countryside that looks like a desert in many places. For miles around, we see cactus-like vegetation. These are the sisle plants. From the leaves of this plant come the fibers from making rope. [Music] With swift, powerful strokes, the plantation workers chop down the sisle leaves. They don't look much like rope, or even something from which rope can be made. But let's follow this crop, Junior Explorers, and see what happens to it. [Music] Between the rows of sisle plants runs a small railroad. The tracks are temporary. When work in one area is finished, the railroad is simply picked up and laid out in another part of the plantation. Loaded on the small open cars, the bunches of sisle leaves are taken to the mill. which is usually nothing but a long shed made of sheets of corrugated iron. [Music] Here the trains are quickly unloaded and the sisle leaves dumped on a long conveyor belt. Huge rollers carry the leaves to powerful crushing machines which mash and grind the sisle leaves into a pulpy state. It keeps rolling along and other machines pick the fiber out from the pulp and squeeze out the water. [Music] The fiber is then placed on long racks to dry under the hot tropical sun. [Music] When the fiber is dry, it's pressed into huge bales and shipped to factories all over the world. We've seen some very unusual farms, junior explorers. A farm where snake poison is the crop. Another where coconuts are grown for hundreds of different uses. a swamp land turned into a fish farm and desert land growing fibers for rope. I wonder if there's anything on earth from which people can't find some good use if they just set their minds to it. Well, junior explorers, that's all for today's expedition. I'll be here again for another journey to explore this world of ours. >> And we'll be going with Captain Cla. Don't forget to join us on our next expedition. >> So long, junior explorers. See you next trip. [Music]