Seeds Of Progress (1961)

[Music] [Music] progress wears many faces you can recognize it in the facades of beautiful new buildings in the cities you can see it on every street the people walk swiftly and proudly but progress liberates men giving them the look that comes with freedom the face of progress PE out wherever you turn looks out at you from the blast furnaces where steel is being made [Music] you can see it in the big machines that build new highways in the arch of bridges in the rumbling conveyors that carry metal or wrenched from the earth in the big ships that lie in the harbors loading and unloading their [Music] Freight but what of the land that lies beyond the cities how beautiful it is and yet is the face we see here the face of progress or is it still the inscrutable face of nature scornful of men who scratch the soil and plant their seed and hope for the miracle of a new [Music] Harvest is the face of progress to be seen in the marketplace or is there a scarcity of many good foods a lack of variety does progress look up at you from your plate are the children getting the right things to eat without the food that builds healthy bodies progress is an empty word who can enjoy it only when The Good Earth can be made to yield us a Bountiful Harvest do we have a solid foundation on which to build the [Music] future now what would you say if I told you that where I come from progress often wears the face of a child [Music] the seeds of our future lie in thousands of young people who are learning new ways of working on the land they belong to the rural youth clubs of Latin America there are already 7,500 of these clubs with a membership of more than 250,000 boys and girls the Club emblem May differ slightly from country to country but the purpose is always the same to teach the young people how to make a better life for themselves in the rural communities here is how the rural clubs function first Club leaders are instructed by professional experts known as extension agents who have gone to agricultural colleges and know the science of farming these courses are usually provided by the extension service of the Ministry of Agriculture [Music] girls as well as young men learn many things how to cultivate the soil properly and how to enrich it with chemical fertilizers when necessary these young people who are being trained as Leaders do not get paid anything they are volunteers who have offered their services because they realize how important the movement is they attend classes where the complex inner structure of plan plants is explained they learn not only the anatomy of growing things but what diseases May attack a plant and how to combat them but it is not all farming they learn how to make their own clothes they study the science of food too and learn what people should eat to build a strong healthy body and how to prepare the food [Music] properly when they have learned all these things they go back to their own communities and discuss the best way to pass on the new knowledge to the younger members of the [Music] club how wonderful it is to plant the seed of a new idea in a child's mind and watch it [Music] grow but it is not only the children who learn we blow the seeds of knowledge in all directions carry a portable stove from place to place introduce new kinds of food that are necessary to a well-balanced diet and show how to prepare and cook them how often their faces light up as they taste something for the first time and realize it can be on their own [Music] table I know a girl who decided to raise poultry it began as a rural Club project through the the extension worker she and her brother arranged to buy half a dozen fine hens and a rooster on credit with the understanding that they would pay for them out of whatever earnings they made now they have a thriving Ranch that brings them a good income every [Music] year all across Latin America you will find similar projects encouraged by the rural youth movement with part of his share of the profits the brother decided to buy and raise hogs at this rate it won't be long before these enterprising youngsters have a sizable bank account I know of another Community where the rural youth club decided to make the bees go to work for them many parents whose only experience with bees was getting stung took a dim view of this project but the extension worker showed the young people how bees should be hand handled and they were not [Music] afraid they were taught how to build their own beehives but they were learning something even more valuable at the same time how to be self-reliant this is very necessary when you work on a farm and have little or no money to start with you must know how to do everything for [Music] yourself here too what began with the youngsters ended up by interesting the older members of the community instead of being stung by a bee they were stung by a new idea that it was possible to change things and make them better the youngsters set a good example of what can be accomplished with initiative and Enterprise that honey paid off in more places than just the marketplace bees are valuable insects all right they create something useful but there are plenty of other insects that are only destructive when you're trying to grow things it's one long battle between you and the pests they're determined to eat the food before you can get it to your own mouth science has made big strides in pest control and we're passing this new knowledge along to the members of the rural youth clubs the spray is not expensive it's the knowledge that's valuable it can make the difference between food and famine I can remember a time when our orange trees were struck by blight we found out what was causing it and began spraying the Orchards with the proper chemicals now the oranges are beautiful everybody wants [Music] them I saw a rural Club project once where the children were raising rabbits what a Charming picture they made carrying their pets to the extension worker for examination of course he was not sentimental about it at all he was a good veterinarian he gave the boys advice about the animal Fe eating and explained carefully what he was doing and why before he inoculated each rabbit I couldn't help thinking it was lucky I wasn't raising those rabbits I would have wanted to keep them all as pets [Music] girls feel best when they work on projects that don't harm the animals for instance with a little instruction and practice they can become quite expert at sheep [Music] shearing wool is part of a woman's life it's as primitive and basic to her as red even a small girl knows the value of wool from Early Childhood she rolls yard after yard of Woolen yarn into balls with the other girls and it's not too long before she learns how to use it with wool she can make all sorts of garments both for herself and for her family learn to weave cloth which can be made into garments or sold in the marketplace she knits and reflects that girls and Lambs understand each other there's a little of the cowboy in every lad and it's easy for us to teach them how to handle cattle a boy can buy a pure bread heer through his rural Club he must sign a contract to pay for it in 30 months his father must sign the the contract too to make it legal the youngster's dream is to start a beef or dairy herd as many other boys have done in time there will be milk and cheese or meat for the whole family and extra money from cream sold in the nearby City perhaps later on he may want to enter the best of his herd in a cattle show this may be at a local fair or at an auction he will learn the fine points of grooming so that he can make the animal look its best before it enters the judging Arena finally the big moment will come he too will parade around the big circle past all the important people who sit there watching will his entry catch the auctioneer's eye will some judge award him a prize who knows in any case it's a dream to hold fast in one's mind a dream he will work hard to [Music] achieve in many places the farmer still works the land as it was done for centuries before him but slowly a little at a time the old ways are changing the children who belong to the rural clubs are learning new ways to do things through them the seeds of progress are beginning to sprout using the new knowledge they are able to achieve crops like this fine new hybrid corn the boy corn is awarded a prize but the real prize is progress machines take the load off the farmer's back and we teach the boys how to use [Music] [Applause] them with machines a man can increase the yield of his land 100 fold and with the increase comes abundance food for many instead of just for oneself and his family [Applause] from the Caribbean to Cape Horn no matter what region of Latin America one lives in the new ways benefit all a lot of people think that progress has to be a big deal and cost a million dollars but sometimes it just means making the most of what you have The Good Earth itself for for instance and the thing they call a sver ram when you consider that a whole Community can use it the ram is not expensive and yet it can achieve a small miracle you throw your weight on the handle and Presto you have a brick almost anybody can do it with bricks you can build anything from a rabbit hutch to a Schoolhouse you're in [Music] business when the land is neglected it slowly dies without the roots of growing things to hold the Earth in place water eats it away floods may wash away the top [Music] soil the Earth cracks and the Barron Fields refuse to nourish [Music] anything one way to prevent the catastrophe of soil erosion is by a scientific program of reforestation all across the land the young members of the rural clubs are participating in this program first they learn the anatomy of a tree and how it grows then they go out with shovels and seedlings and a mission to protect this land of theirs to cherish it and guard it as a man guards his most prized possession [Music] here progress is a hole dug in the ground by a child here the future takes root all across the land the work goes on new schools for the children [Music] rise and the rhythm of hammers alternates with the rhythm of dancing feet [Music] [Music] and all across the land the teaching and the learning go on under it all is the sound of music and a feeling of excitement the Elation that comes with achievement the future holds promise the heart has hope the children learn they work they dream they play [Music] [Music] while they hold the long rose under the hot sun men and women on the farms dream of a better life not just for themselves but for their children and under the hot sun the young people of Latin America move forward already they are learning that man can control his own destiny and that the future is whatever we make it those of us who work with the rural youth clubs feel sure that in them lie the seeds of [Music] progress the Affiliated Ford companies of Latin America have presented this motion picture as a tribute to all young men and women working on the land for a better tomorrow to the rural youth clubs their leaders and sponsors to the governments that encourage and support rural youth activities in the belief that in agriculture as an education industry and the Sciences lie the seeds of progress toward a better way of life for the peoples of Latin America [Music]