Let's Talk About Future Farmers

[Music] the Future Farmers of our country are shown a typical corn field as part of their training here in a field of mixed dwarf and regular corn they learn that more sunlight reaches all the corn plants by growing a mixture of taller and shorter stalks young men such as these perhaps members of 4 clubs or University students studying the scientific approach to farming frequently visit a great many different Farms to learn about the care of different crops today even the farmer is an expert who may specialize in growing a few particular crops the husking of corn by hand may be oldfashioned when machines do it so much more rapidly but the best way to learn how is from the ground up and now the husking glove with the built-in knife blade that cuts the ear from the stalk is used by an old hand in the days before machine husking a good man picked about 100 bushels a day today a machine does that in half an hour but it is still a pleasure to watch a man whose skill at husking was developed almost to a fine art years ago corn husking contests were a big part of state fairs and though it's getting to be a lost skill as more and more machines take over it still reminds us of the grand old days of square dancing in the ho down [Music] the machine Husker is only one of many tractor driven harvesting tools this gulping monster with mechanical gullet chews up a corn field and spits out the corners in no time at all the future farmer must know a great deal about these machines their upkeep and repair did you know that corn also called maze is really a grass and that it was grown by American Indians long before Columbus voyaged here it is one of the major foods for livestock as well as boys in England corn means wheat while in Scotland and Ireland the word corn means oats but in this country it is still that wonderful field of stalks waving high in a corn field until the gulping corn husking machine chops it down just think that this machine in one day does the work of 50 men the shelling of corn now takes place right in the field this machine removes every kernel from the corn C the cob is usually ground up for fertilizer while the kernels are dried and prepared for storage to be used as food for livestock or for processing to make corn starch sugar and other food products and chemicals the dryer replaces natural sunlight before this machine was developed kernels might dry in the Sun for 6 weeks before the corn could be stored now this machine does the same work in 3 hours it removes almost 30% of the water in each kernel and can handle 3 175 bushel loads a day tomorrow's Farmers certainly will have to be expert mechanics to handle all of these tools here the corn moves into the hopper through a moving Chute the worm gear is only one of many machines that help reduce labor although these Future Farmers riding their mechanical Steed must learn a great deal about Machinery they may never realize what backbreaking work farming used to be even today's farmer gets up at the crack of dawn and goes to bed dog tired but only the old hand looking over his fields at the end of the day knows what hard work farming used to be tomorrow's farmers are lucky they are living in the miraculous age of machines [Music]