Still image of On the Farm from Movie Makers, Dec. 1940, 574.
English
00:10:00
800 ft
16mm
B&W
Silent
"On the Farm, made by Mr. and Mrs. Ray Garner for the Harmon Foundation, is an example of visual education at its best. By the use of two charming, healthy little American children as the chief characters, it enlists sympathy before it attempts to instruct. And it never strays from the fundamental concept which, to all evidence, was in the minds of its makers: namely that, to teach children by visual aids, one must appeal to their sense of fun. Charm, here, is not outlawed simply because it is not informative. Divided into two parts, Morning and Afternoon, and illustrated with unpretentious titles, such as This is how the animals help, which are chalked in white letters on a blackboard, On the Farm tells of a common workday, in terms of what two farm children can do to assist their parents. From the sequence in which the tousled farm lad puts his head out of the window to see what kind of a daybreak it is. to the time when the sun goes down behind the silo, almost every kind of farm activity is shown. Other children in city classrooms are going to see themselves in the scenes and will want to learn more about a way of life in which they can feel so much at home." Movie Makers, Dec. 1940, 600-601.
The Academic Film Archive of North America.
Harmon Foundation Collection, 1922-1967; National Archives and Records Administration (US)
"Documentary: About a farm family in Michigan. Reel 1: Illustrates pre-breakfast chores; family breakfast; father and son mow field; mother and daughter feed chickens, and pick fruit and vegetables for family. Reel 2: Boy drives horse-drawn hay loader while father and helper stack hay on wagon and into hayloft. Children play in hay. Father and son plow and reap wheat; men drive pigs into wagon; children wave as wagon leaves. Children gather eggs and accompany father, with his produce, home at day's end," National Archives and Records Administration.
Amateur Cinema