The Earth And What It Grows: Northwestern Mexico is a short documentary from 1951 that gives viewers a look at the agriculture of northwestern Mexico (namely, cotton and hemp). The film opens with scenes of the desert landscape of Northwestern Mexico. At a farm in Casas Grandes, a farmer and his wife feed chickens outside their home. The farmer draws water from a well in the house’s courtyard (01:27). The two climb into their old car to head into town. Their son, Carlos, rides his horse. Carlos and his uncle walk to a harvester combine, and the shot features an old horse-drawn hay mower resting in the foreground (02:55). There are more shots of the landscape in northwestern Mexico and a little canal that moves water for irrigation (04:00). There is a cotton field (04:10), and picked cotton is sucked up from the back of a truck and moved into storage bins. The cotton goes through ginning machines. Men prepare a bale mold for the cotton fibers. A man latches metal straps around a molded cotton bale (05:30). A tractor pulls a trailer with the cotton bale; men stack bales of cotton (06:49). The film then takes viewers to the small town of Pericos, which is located in the desert with tall cactus plants rising from the sandy soil (07:12). The film shows a field of henequen—agave fourcroydes (07:47). Men unload bundles of henequen leaves at a factory. Workers put the leaves into a steamer. Henequen fibers are loaded onto a wheelbarrow and are taken out to the drying yard. Men toss the fibers to improve drying (09:41). The dried henequen fibers are now called hemp; two men hold a hemp rope (10:22), concluding the film.
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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 http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
