Great Story Of Corn (1960s)

foreign [Music] yes it's a great day to be alive and I hope it's even more beautiful wherever you are this is Everett Mitchell with a great story of corn the crop that makes America great on a million Farms Across America as spring warms the soil and other corn season begins filling the wagons in The Cribs again to all flowing well corn is the very foundation of the food supply of America and the world [Music] [Music] cornice beef and pork poultry eggs and dairy products how much hundreds of the products of American Industries on River the mighty movie of South America years ago ancestors of the American Indians probably first met the Primitive ancestor of corn this plant known as grass corn may be similar to the one cultivated plant from which corn was developed perhaps a grass-like plant such as this was discovered growing in the southwest section of the Amazon basin by the amaranth the earliest men of the Western World This Grass corn is grown as a research project at the Connecticut primitive data structure and over the years there emerged a great food producing plants that was to become the Indian's most valuable gift to the white man saw the wild unexplored area of the Amazon River Pampas film is probably the Cradle of corn and out of this region of Brazil and Bolivia only recently penetrated by white men corn spread north and south north to the Inca civilization of eight Cuban Haiti in the West Indies North on up through the region that was to become each country and the Pineland corn has spread through the Western Hemisphere before the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in [Music] Dependable source of food this resulted in establishment of permanent Villages and homes for the Indians her families could settle down to support hospitalization from Village to Village and from tribe to tribe seed was passed by trade or gift and corn spread North to Central America where other great cultures were founded centuries ago Mayan and Aztec priest in Guatemala and other parts of Central America directed the construction of cities temples and observatories in civil additions built on corn in Yucatan are the ruins of a magnificent pyramid where once the Mayan priest prepared a calendar to guide the Indians in the growing of corn today while the Magnificent Stone buildings of those ancient civilizations crumble under the green curtain of the Jungle corn Remains the best food crop of Central America [Music] northward the great food crop slowly inched its way spreading its benefits to the Indians of prehistoric Mexico here today in a land that has produced thousands of props of corn in many cases the methods of planting and growing corn are not changed from the time when the first crop was grown this Mexican farmer uses the same kind of planting stick that is great great grandfather used in the warm climate of some region South of the Border you can find crops in all stages [Music] harvesting is also the same operation that it has been for centuries corn is thick by hand and the ears go into a basket on the royal sister and maturity conditions of every region where corn is grown today [Music] mountains did not stop the spread of corn [Music] on the western slope of the Rockies in Southwestern Colorado is the Mesa Verde Rising above the high Plateau here a thousand years ago as a flourishing Indian civilization built on corn in this rugged Wilderness of Mesa Land crisscrossed by Canyons two cowhands looking for lost cattle some 60 years ago were flabbergasted when they gazed down on the amazing ruins of The Cliff Palace a thousand years ago in this one building more than 400 people live [Music] here were Achievers are circular Club rooms for the men where women were forbidden to enter here for green storage rooms where grinding Stones were used in a rolling crushing motion that reduced corn meals or flour [Music] relics now on display at the park tour scientists that several successive Indian peoples lived here with one thing in common their dependence on corn or food all right [Music] these years of corn grown by ancient cliff dwellers have been found here and although 1700 or more years have passed since they were harvested it is apparent that the cornbread with 10 inches of rain per year in a two acre tract of Mesa land above the cliffs Indian employees of the park have grown corn for several successive years to demonstrate of the ancient cliff dwellers planted and cared for their principal food crop foreign [Music] crop for several successive years the cliff dwellers disappeared to the east corn was carried across the sea to the West Indies on Cuba where this scene was filmed on Haiti and the smaller Islands Fields were planted to maze along with tobacco sweet potatoes and other common crops in the West Indies as in the foreign growing methods often follow those of centuries ago perhaps Christopher Columbus himself saw Fields like this on Cuba in the historic year of 1492. here corn is dried by hanging it in trees yes we Have No Bananas that's corn in that tree after the great discoveries of Columbus came a century of exploration here at Jamestown Virginia is the great actor of life under Captain John smithster in order those who do not work shall not eat the gentleman Adventures of Jamestown Colony were forced to labor in this field and helped grow 40 acres of the Corn that saved them from starvation every American School child learns about the Mayflower pilgrims but these youngsters are getting the story of the Plymouth Colony right where the Mayflower landed on Cape Cod weary hungry and facing a cold winter the pilgrims were giving to body and spirit by Indian corn on a granite Boulder a bronze marker records a great event in American history 16 pilgrims led by Miles Standish William Bradford Stephen Hopkins and Edward Tilley found the precious Indian corn on this spot which they called Corn Hill November 1620. the story of the pilgrims this year under guidance of the Indian Squall they grew their own corn [Music] and at Harvest time they set aside the first Thanksgiving to thank the Creator for his bounty and sure it was God's good Providence that we found this corn for else we know not how we should have done a few years later corn was contributed by Massachusetts base efforts to found in support of our University the oldest university in our country and one of the best known in the world [Music] corn helped the cause of Freedom when it fed the Ragged exhausted continental army during the darkest coldest days of the Revolutionary War [Music] so a new Free Nation emerged After the revolution President George Washington paid tribute to corn in the Cornerstone laying ceremony of the new Capitol building Thomas Jefferson third president foresaw a great nation of sincere honest people whose homes and hearts would be rooted in vast fertile cornfields to the West an area which was open to settlement by the Northwest Ordinance and the Louisiana Purchase then along the trails plays by the Pioneers who carried long rifles Into the Wilderness followed the ox carts and the covered wagons bearing the axes and plows of the farmer Folk whispered holes [Music] what the Indians disputed the right of the whites to take their land and blood flowed as burning cabins cast a red light on lonely corn patches In 1832 the Blackhawk War fought for corn lands ended with the Indians beaten and Scattered today on beautiful Rock River in Illinois stands the monument to the great Chief Blackhawk who defeated by the whites spoke these words I loved my towns my cornfields and the home of my people now it is yours keep it as we did it will produce you good crops so the way was cleared for corn farming and Hogs team 12 a new industry boom voted on the stock that readily ate the corn which was springing up in more and more Fields farther and far Buffalo New York was the center of the new livestock industry then carried Along by the westward flood the center of Meatpacking moved to Cincinnati where it rested in the 1850s the team said at the rate of us and Hogs a day [Music] next for the Western Union Chico took over as the world's meat packing capital and the center of trade in corn this is how one of the Great Chicago meat packing companies founded by PD armor looked in 1867. Union stockyards in thousands of head of livestock here is corn on the hook representing the work and the crops of millions of farmers here is Food For America and the world processed by the Chicago immense meat packing Industries so corn helped build the industrial North and Through the Years trade and Manufacturing expanded on the strength of the yellow grain [Music] in the Old South corn and cotton were the big crops [Music] this cast iron fence erected many years ago in New Orleans is evidence that the cotton Planters held corn in high respect or the golden kernels that could be eaten helped to build the picturesque historic South [Music] from the Potomac and the Ohio rivers south and west of the missed calls magnificent Plantation Mansions such as Stockton Hall at Natchez Mississippi were built by mussels that took their energy from corn each Plantation supported itself corn was shelled by hand for labor was plentiful then the grain was delivered to the Grist Mill even today little neighborhood meals such as this one continue to grind out cornmeal from the mill each family gets its supply of meals freshly ground from homegrown corn and ready for the kitchen [Music] many Southern States now require that mills in which cornmeal with mineral and vitamins [Music] always corn has been the Mainstay of the foods that graced the tables of both mansion and cabins in the south and of course the mules and horses which work the fields are fed on the great staple crop corn in the new Diversified agriculture of the South corn continues to hold top importance along with cotton tobacco supplementary crops of fruits and vegetables and the South looks forward to even better days with improved methods of Agriculture Power Machinery better livestock and the new hybrid corn varieties [Music] foreign [Music] as the years of the 19th century March 5 Horn Country Farmers settled down to the work of growing great crops to feed an expanding Nation Industries and commerce grew and prospered with a firm backlog of corn and homesteads extended the agricultural Empire farther and farther west [Music] cattle and Hogs of course followed the yellow grain and Omaha Nebraska became another great corn and livestock capital [Music] for a new and better age of farm living in 1905 Edward Murray East went from Illinois where he had helped developed an incorn to Connecticut the land of the Sleeping Giant mountain for he continued his work encouraged by cornbreading and Crossing done elsewhere by George Harrison Shaw after he's joined the Harvard University faculty in 1909 his student Herbert Kendall Hayes took charge at the Connecticut agricultural experiment station Hayes developed a beautiful high-yielding single cross hybrid before he went to Minnesota in 1915 Donald F Jones another student of Dr East took charge at the Connecticut station single cross hybrids could never be widely used because of the difficulty of producing large amount of seed corn from inbred lines Jones solved this problem in 1917 when he suggested the double cross hybrid since then Through The Years scientists have come from all the world to the land of the sleeping giant to learn of the miracle of hybrid corn from the man who developed the first successful hybrid foreign here Dr Jones is describing to a visitor the hybrid combination which set the pattern that put hybrid corn in your fields the first seed for the new kind of corn was produced for farmers in 1920 by George Carter in Connecticut only a short distance from the mountain known as the sleeping giant now a big job remained for plant breeders before the new hybrid corn could spread to every Farm where corn is grown in America research at Connecticut had provided corn breeding methods but the hybrid produced there was adapted only to the northeastern states now many different kinds of hybrids were needed to meet many different kinds of growing conditions from north to south and east to west Perhaps it is a tribute to our web life but I have brilliant scientists most of them young men were willing to go against the current and to tackle with tremendous Faith the huge job of developing hybrids for All America who stake their future on a radically new approach to Corn Improvement America and the world all the hybrid corn makers the prophets of plenty of great debt new hybrids had to be created to meet each local set of corn growing problems then proved by making Superior performance records in test plots under practical corn growing conditions yields of course counted heavily and each new hybrid then is now was checked for ability to make an outstanding record scenes like this have been repeated tens of thousands of times as new experimental hybrids were checked against existing varieties in-field Laboratories of every important corn growing area in the United States and Canada as leadership developed hybrid corn research departments appeared State experiment stations the United States Department of Agriculture and private organizations set up staff to produce hybrid corn for the farmers of the United States and Canada here you see one of these hybrid cornbreading staffs in action illustrating this new and effective method of hybrid corn Improvement such a research organization maintains Central breeding stations in each important corn growing area closely linked to each one of these Central corn breeding stations are hundreds of field testing plots in this scene Dr Jim holdrick one of the outstanding cornbreading scientists of our time is shown with several of his associates they are weighing the future of a promising experimental hybrid this is an actual field conference decisions made in conferences like this could add several millions of dollars to Farmer income by making available a new and Superior strain all of the hybrid corn research work done by this organization and others during the last has resulted in Northwest corn for the East and Middle East bitter corn for the West better corn for the middle South better corn for the Southwest bitter corn for the south in fact bitter corn wherever corn is an important crop for Northern Iowa big matures on strong stocks still green or Ontario big eels of fast drying corn under tough growing conditions for Pennsylvania insect resistant hybrids or a wide range of soil fertility for the West hybrids that stand severe drought and mature before early freezes or the Southwest hybrids need outstanding resistance to Drought plus resistant to weevils and other insects and research provides the answer to the many problems of Corn Growers across the country with adapted hybrids perhaps one of the best examples of what research does is shown here this hybrid pictured in natural stage without having been touched is a northern variety where fast drying before cold weather is necessary the husks open up on maturity to let the kernels lose moisture fast for the South fast drying is not necessary but tight husks are needed to protect the kernels from damaged by weevils and birds Nationwide research provided this hybrid the hybrid corn research worked during the first 30 years of the present Century has been a revolution in American agriculture steam 40 percent more yield plus resistance to disease insect found that they could draw more corn on fewer acres and ground that it formally produced corn was put into soil building crops as a conservation measure pickle Huskers Farm new hybrid born into General use and that meant completely mechanized farming horses kept for the corn husking jobs were necessary and with Machinery one could handle many more Acres so a New Prospect with higher standards of bling and more time for fun travel and enjoyment [Music] but along with this new age in agriculture came World War II when the Axis powers cut our supplies of fats oils Rubber and many other vital materials they hope to strangle America but their Warlords hadn't figured on American farmers and hybrid corn during the War years Prof after crop of three billion bushels of corn was harvested and on the X Breakers made of Evies oil and fiber crop birds of the pilgrim father on this form or else we know not