Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

Mr. Phillips' message would indicate that a projectorless farm bureau is a handicapped institution LOGICAL APPEALS to INTEREST E. M. Phillips Farm Adviser, Greene County Farm Bureau, Illinois IN order that the functions of the farm bureau may be better understood and the kinds of service this organization has to offer be made more available to its membership, community meetings have become an important part of the work of the farm bureau. An important factor in the success of such meetings is good attendance. Interest and attraction are drawing cards for bringing a crowd together in any meeting. Since the coming of motion pictures on a commercial scale in the early years of the present century doubtless there have been more people in attendance at film exhibitions than at all other meetings combined. The average farmers' meeting as staged in the past has been considered by the average farmer as dry and uninteresting. Farmers' institutes have been poorly attended. Many other agricultural gatherings have fared the same way. Farm-bureau meetings have met with somewhat better response than the oldtime institutes, but still have failed to draw the rank and file as they should. The problem then became one of making meetings more attractive in order to increase attendance. Why not try films? If motion pictures were so successful in drawing people together in our cities and towns, the natural inference was that. they would be as successful with the farm folk. Since the advent of successful portable projectors and the production of interesting and worthwhile agricultural films this plan has become possible and practicable. From the standpoint of the farm-bureau officials motion pictures are not staged merely for the purpose of entertainment. They are a means to an end, though oftentimes the films themselves may teach highly important lessons. Stories of better farm management, better cultural methods, better livestock, better rural social conditions, better country homes, etc., have been put into attractive pictures that not only entertain but instruct. Couple these with the other serious purposes of farm-bureau service and you have abundant reason for assembling the people of a rural community at any time the occasion is suitable. Since the first year's experience of our farm bureau we have made a limited use of motion pictures, but were obliged to depend upon the film theatres for both buildings and projectors. Hence only a few such meetings were attempted until October, 1921, when the farm bureau purchased a portable projector. Since that time the machine has been in frequent use in all parts of the county. The first demonstration of the practicability of "films for farm folks" was staged in the farm-bureau tent at the county fair. A tent, of course, does not afford a very dark place for showing motion pictures, but by the aid of a shadow box we secured very good results, even on the brightest day. This showed that an exhibition of motion pictures could be put on in almost any building at any time of day that it might be desired to show pictures. At the county fair we had at least 2,000 visitors in our tent in a single day. By admission charges to entertainments money might easily have been raised to pay for an outfit of this kind, but the executive committee of the farm bureau felt that such equipment was so important in conducting community meetings that the expenditure was highly justified, so the regular farm-bureau funds were drawn upon to pay for the outfit. Including some accessories our outfit cost us a little less than $300. During the past winter we held between 25 and 30 community meetings at which no admission was charged. These meetings were held in country schoolhouses, rural churches, town halls, etc., and we had full houses at practically every one of them, except when the weather was very bad and the roads were nearly impassable. Our meetings seldom last more than two hours — usually less. About half of the time is used in showing pictures and the remainder in talks by members present, the farm adviser, or some outside speaker. From the standpoint of the bureau the talks and discussions are of more importance than the pictures, but the pictures we think are usually more of a drawing card than any other feature of the program. They are the means of boosting the attendance, appealing particularly to men who do not have the reading habit and seldom care to attend a lecture or other similar meetings. We are thus able to get achievements, plans, and purposes of the farm bureau across to members who are not readily reached by our circulars and the articles we contribute to the newspapers. If care be taken in the selection of reels many valuable lessons may be driven home, not only to the more intelligent farmer but particularly to the farmer with less learning and aptitude for reading. Our state experiment stations and the U. S. Department of Agriculture have brought out many valuable and interesting circulars and bulletins on all kinds of subjects pertinent to farming, but what a woefully few of them are read ! But if one of these bulletins be dramatized and put on the screen, how readily it can be put across to even men of small mental calibre ! In this manner the story can be told in 15 or 20 minutes, whereas it would require several hours of careful perusal to assimilate the same thing from a printed page. Absorbing the information from the screen is easy and impressive. We find that farmers enjoy homely pictures depicting the familiar everyday scenes such as planting the crops, cultivation, harvesting, etc., especially those in which modern machinery and up-to-date methods are employed. They like also to see the best types of livestock — animals of show-ring calibre. We have made quite wide use of a reel produced in our own county, on the Gregory Farm at White Hall. This is a picture showing Mr. Corsa's prizewinning Percherons in action before a large crowd of men assembled to attend one of his famous horse sales. We use the DeVry projector and a white muslin screen. This machine has given us entire satisfacton to date. It is motor driven and the light is furnished by an incandescent lamp. A generator furnishing 30-volt electric current or a storage battery furnishing the same voltage is required to operate the machine. The ordinary farm lighting-plant generator also furnishes satisfactory current. In using the 110-volt city current a rheostat must be employed to reduce the current. We have found it very satisfactory, in showing in rural communities, to use storage batteries. We get a very steady current and good pictures. An ordinary white sheet makes a very satisfactory screen, or pictures may be projected either on a white wall or light tinted walls. The pictures produced by this little portable machine are fully as clear cut as those commonly seen in the commercial film houses, even though the latter use an especially prepared screen. The big problem of the farm bureau, especially in these pioneer days of its existence, is to establish contact with its members to the largest possible extent. The bureau has developed several very important lines of service that should appeal to every member of the organization. Farm visits on the part of the county agent, consultations with farmers who come to the office, field demonstrations, etc., are among our best means of reaching the membership, but out of a thousand or more members in the bureau it is found that a goodly number of men are not reached by any one of the above activities. Taking the farm bureau out to the members through community meet 13