“ THE PENCIL AND THE PLOW ” 1958 FILM ABOUT FARMING / AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS PRACTICES XD75934
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2023
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"The Pencil and the Plow" (1958) was made by Atlas Film Corp. and sponsored by the Sinclair Oil & Refining Corp. The film begins with a discussion of the state of agriculture in the USA during the late 1950’s. During this time period farmers began to move from producing blind towards analyzing trends in market in order to increase profits as the US economy and world economy evolved. After the close of WWII, markets and consumer needs changed. Packaging of goods at the market place also changed as farmers were encouraged to sell more goods which consumers would be known to buy. Farmers were also able to operate with better knowledge about weather patterns (1:41). This film is presented by the Sinclair Refining Company (2:15) and directed by Louis J. Marlowe (2:15). The Department of Agriculture participated in the production of this film (2:24). The film introduces a narrative of a family in order to display these advances (2:51). A farmer; Carl, and his son; Lonnie work to patch the farm house roof (2:51). A second son; an artist named Frank, works to paint an image of the barn (3:09). Carl expresses distaste for Frank’s chosen career as a city bound artist (4:46). Frank explains to Carl as a commercial artist he too must study his own market similar to how the farmers market must be studied (5:25). The group listens to the radio dairy prices were expected to increase (8:06). The radio host goes on to explain the soybean situation. The radio became viable source for information for commercial farmers. At home, Lonnie and his wife await Frank and his partner (9:00). Lonnie explains how unpredictable variables could be accounted for (9:31) as he plots the exact amount of time it would take for their guests to arrive (10:23). The couples discusses modern achievements in farming (11:23). Frank begins to sketch Lonnie (12:40). Lonnie explains how he began by studying Agricultural Outlook Reports and attending Outlook meetings. Due to the population boom, he expected the economy would need more dairy (13:02). Volunteer livestock and crop reporters began to turn up (13:52) and the information gathered produced a projected forecast. A plow moves through a field during spring harvest (14:14). Outlook reports and information are released daily through the television, the radio and newspapers (14:36). Frank shows sketches of various artists across the US (15:08). Due to Lonnie’s research, Carl chose to plant soybeans (17:04). At the dairy farm, the cows are milked (19:20) and Lonnie shows where he stores his records (19:30). Mr. Tyree; a notably successful local farmer visits the boys (20:03). Mr. Tyree explains his recent success was due to analyzing the market and taking generous advice from Carl (21:04). Stalls are cleaned (23:55), the fields are plowed (24:04) and farm equipment is inspected (24:20). The final truckload of that year’s crop leave the farm for the market (25:19). Edie arrives with mail from Frank (25:54). Frank’s sketch of Lonnie sits on the cover of the Farmer’s Market (26:32). This film was produced by Atlas Film Corp. (26:48).
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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
Department of Agriculture report just in: Climate change factors indicate a large market shift to cricket production.
One dull pencil ✏️ is better than two sharp minds
Yeah, back then it was simple. Most farms grow what they can grow, what they have the equipment for, what they know, what fits in their crop rotations, what's suited to their land and climate and production style. We grow as much as we can while minimizing the costs to the extent possible. Marketing was just a matter of maybe signing a marketing contract on part of the crop at a price we thought we could make a profit, with an eye on the market trying to see the trends, at least when we were row cropping. Cotton contracts were easy because they were acreage contracts-- whatever grew on the acres you had under contract is what you sold under the contract. If I contracted 50% of my acres at a given price, then half my crop, no matter how much it was, good or bad, got sold for that contract price. I could contract 100% of the crop if I wanted to, and didn't have to worry if it was perfect weather and made 2 bales to the acre, or lousy weather and made 3/4 bale/acre... Grain contracts are for a given number of bushels, so if you contract 10,000 bushels figuring on having a 200 bushel/acre yield and the weather turns dry and you only make 100 bushels/acre, you can get into trouble real fast and end up having to "buy back" the contract, or pay market price for grain and buy it to fill the contract. If the price goes up after you signed the contract, you can lose a lot of money. Course this was back when it was all simple. Back in the days when the cotton buyers came to the gin office for a few hours every other day, visiting several cotton gins around the area in turn day by day, and you could sell right there in the gin office and walk out with a check, put it in the bank, and get a chocolate milk and sausage and biscuit with Grandpa before going home to grease the cotton picker and get started for the day... Now all the cotton goes to a government classing office at the USDA, and you wait for them to post it online along with your warehouse receipts with the official bale weight before you can sell, and it's all done by computer... Grain still sold mostly at the elevator, unless you haul straight to the port, and then they send you a check. I hauled some to a huge local egg farm, and sold across the scale, they called me when they had a check. Now that we're all beef cattle, calves go to the auction barn and we pick up a check after it's done. At least with cattle I can pick and choose when to sell, kinda playing the market a bit, but with cotton and grain there's storage charges after a month so you either better have a contract, or sell pretty quick after harvest if you don't want to start losing money on storage...
Nowadays, the big companies and USDA who works for THEM (not the farmers) gathers all this information and uses it to screw over the farmers as hard as they can... crop reports are doctored to drive down prices when the companies think they're too high, and they'll let them go up in short supply situations so they can get their hands on the grain or cotton or whatever they need in order to make money. After all, they can't make any money if there's not enough to buy-- they'll just jack up the price on whomever they're selling to anyway, so they don't lose money. Usually keep it up so they rake in the money when there's a lot of grain to buy cheap as well. The companies want to be way out in front on contracting, now the suppliers want to sell all their stuff from seed to fertilizer to chemicals to fuel on contract way out in front, too, so they can "lock in a profit"; sometimes the farmer "gets a bargain" and sometimes he gets screwed... like my BIL who locked in fertilizer at $1,300 a ton thinking he was getting a bargain only to see it drop to $1,000 a ton by planting time, so he took a beating. A contract is a contract...
AND of course the speculators and the d@mn commodities market brokers have to make their money, which is why there's no money in farming anymore-- it all goes to all these nonproductive middle men and big corporations, and the farmers are left with a pittance. The speculators have to have their cut, offering "puts" and "calls" where you basically gamble on whether the price of something is going to go up or down. H3ll if I knew how to do that like an expert and make money, I wouldn't HAVE to run equipment all day or get out in the heat and dust and work on stuff that breaks down, I could sit on a beach in Waikiki and make grain trades on a computer all day and live the high life doing nothing... but the farmer is expected to "make his money off marketing" nowadays, and be an expert at outmaneuvering the big corporations and the Wall Street wizards sitting on the Kansas City Board of Trade or the Chicago Board of Trade, or the New York Mercantile Exchange for cotton, in order to sell their crop for a profit. Again, if a guy could do that, he wouldn't HAVE to farm-- he'd be better off as an investment banker! It's all about like shooting craps anyway... it's just a gamble on a bet whether the market is going to go up or down. Back in the old days, you could take your cotton class cards and warehouse receipts around to several buyers and they'd have a look at it and offer you a price... now they pull up the TO THE SECOND current market price on the exchanges or grain markets and DEDUCT whatever quality issues might be on the class card or dockage on the grain and take that off the current market price, which they will usually only hold for about an hour or two at most anyway. H3ll the buyers just hold onto the stuff and sell it when they can make a profit or minimize a loss anyway, and of course they make more than they lose or they'd be out of business... It's all a racket...
Plus volume, grocer good will. Just ask Bill Dudley.
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Please post these vidoes without the PF# and the time. It is very diffcutl to watch it. I understand the Periscopefilm watermark, but please remove the PF# and the time. Thank you.
Thanks for your note. However, the counter is absolutely essential for documentary filmmakers -- without it they cannot identify the sections of footage that they are using in their productions.