POTATO CULTIVATION & DISTRIBUTION UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD PROMOTIONAL FILM 62254

Produced by Vincent H. Hunter and presented by the Union Pacific Railroad, the 1940s short film Potatoes Unlimited provides viewers with a glimpse of the potato industry, from creating potato seed to the transportation to grocery stores via Union Pacific lines. The film begins with several shots of mountain ranges and potato fields, including the area of Idaho just west of the Tetons (01:45). Soil is prepared with tractors, ploughs, and harrows (02:28), and sometimes horse-drawn equipment, so that the potatoes will have the nutrients they need once planted. Potato seed production is crucial in the battle to produce disease-free potatoes (04:22) and maximize yields. Once seeds have been cut and indexed, they are planted using a planting board (05:39) in square plots, allowing farmers to identify which ones are healthy or not, so that farmers can eliminate the unhealthy seeds from their potato cellars. Healthy potato seeds are boxed, shipped, and planted. Planting equipment includes tractor-drawn assisted feed planters (08:21; 09:08), high-speed picker/planters (15:53), and rotary-disc seed cutters (14:16) used by small growers. As the potatoes grow, people inspect the fields and remove any diseased plants (09:49) so the crop will pass state inspection. The film discusses the different viruses that affect potato crops (10:56), including mosaic, black leg, and spindle tuber. Laboratory tests (13:05) are used to determine potential cases of ring rot in crops as well. Irrigation (17:18) is crucial for growth of the entire plant, and controlled flow is the best practice. Cultivating (18:58) helps with irrigation and provides ridges for shade. Where dry farming is required, cultivators equipped with duck feet (19:17) ensure better absorption of moisture. Potato farmers spray for bugs, using a liquid sprayer (19:30) or by crop dusting (19:45). Harvest time (20:13) requires long hours in the field. Various diggers (20:18), including high-speed two-row diggers (22:32), single-row digger and sackers (23:10), and 2-row diggers with elevators (23:52), are used to remove potatoes with minimal bruising. Pickers then retrieve the potatoes and put them into burlap sacks if sacking is not a part of the digger machine. Roto-beaters (21:05) are used to break off vines and increase harvesting speed. Potatoes are placed on conveyer belts to be cleaned, graded, and stored in underground or partially underground storage buildings. Concrete storage buildings near Union Pacific Railroad lines are built for bulk storage (26:00), where potatoes are eventually washed, graded, sacked, weighed, and shipped to markets via the Union Pacific Railroad (29:00). The film concludes using graphics that show how potatoes are loaded in rail cars to protect the potatoes, taking into account the season and the type of potatoes being shipped (29:27).
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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 www.PeriscopeFilm.com

[@kcdonegan]

This is awesome. I've actually always wondered how this whole process works, this video is perfect in explaining every detail. Thank y'all for all these great old films you've transferred here. I love all of them.

[@markward6076]

People back in the olden days were smarter than given credit for.

[@MarioMastar]

They'd have been given a lot more credit if not for the horrendous, unnecessary discrimination and hate mongering that held back so much potential. It really is true that a lot of people were very progressive and always have been, but the silent workers who gave us the homes we all live in and technology we use daily don't have time to stand on a soapbox, so sadly we only hear and see the politicians and hear of the social endeavors that frankly plagued most of history.

[@Bear-kr3gr]

Every year dad would show up with a big 50 lb sack of potatoes in spring and say start cutting. Easiest plant to propagate and grow, a ten year old kid did it.

[@peoplesperson2010]

They had me at "potatoes unlimited"!! My hero

[@geebopbaluba1591]

I’m 67 years old and I can remember my aunt took us to the Golden Arches when we were very young kids and that’s the very first time I had McDonalds French Fries. I’ve been in love since.

[@MarioMastar]

McDonald's fries STILL are the best or at least top 3. Even amid all the "health" foolishness, I'd find myself downing those fries to this day with a smile. they're kind of like what makes potato chips so good.

[@mikewatt8706]

As a kid i gathered spuds in ireland. Nothing better than making home made chips every nite from one nice big spud that accidentally fell into my pocket

[@tacomas9602]

Hehehehe that's a funny way to put it

[@abitofthisnthat7355]

Industrial farming is a two edged sword ⚔️

[@nickmad887]

thank you

[@thomasburke7995]

2/3 rds of the labour you see in this video has been eliminated with technology, yet technology has improved the yield by 2/3.

[@satanofficial3902]

One day in the future, Rimmer will become an emissary of the King of the Potato People.

[@Baynewsvideo]

@14:57 This is why Grandma only had 3 fingers...

[@andybaldman]

America used to be a country of hardworking people who made things.

[@Parents_of_Twins]

We are still a country of hardworking people but the damn CEO's wanted more money so they moved the jobs overseas. It's asinine and should be punished.

[@tacomas9602]

@@Parents_of_Twins yup.

[@alangray9117]

Thank you for nipping another possible "back in my day" post and a comment on how lazy people are nowadays too. 😂

[@MarioMastar]

It also used to be a country of wealthy or ignorant racists who destroyed all the attempts at making things and building better lives for everyone. Keep in mind the politics we see isn't new, it's just louder now because instead of looking inward at the problems of society, we turned a blind eye and blamed everything BUT the problems. You don't grow up greedy if you spent your childhood working on the fields, you grow up greedy if your wealthy parents ordered other people to do so while you sat comfy thinking you were going to inherit the WORLD once they died.

[@ihctractorman9966]

Nice oliver hart paar 70's...

[@markstengel7680]

Nothing like a NY Steak with a Baked Russet Potato umm !

[@daviddavenport1485]

No small potatoes here

[@tacomas9602]

7:15 why does it have such a funny tone

[@peoplesperson2010]

Great dust bowl here we come. 3:05

[@Parents_of_Twins]

I wonder how many fingers were lost or scarred up cutting those spuds? Hell I wouldn't last a week without bleeding all over that place.

[@jaminova_1969]

Potatoe, poe-tat-toe!

[@bendover9411]

I like tater tots!

[@lukestrawwalker]

Tater tots are made from the bits of potato left over from making french fries... they shoot the spuds through a pipe in a high speed jet of water, and there's a grid pattern blade in the pipe which slices the taters into fries. The little bitty sections out around the outside of the potato, that wouldn't make a completely square fry, get separated out and then chopped up roughly and pressed into a molded roller that makes the tater tots... they are popped out of the roller pockets and flash frozen making finished tater tots. Before tater tots were invented, all that tater bits went to waste, as it was simply dried and sent for livestock feed... creating tater tots allowed them to make a "value added" product out of something that was otherwise just a low-price bulk cattle feed... Later! OL J R :)

[@miles_da-tractor_man]

I like French frys

[@billsimpson604]

Few overweight people out there doing that work.

[@ArmpitStudios]

Pretty neat, but potatoes are disgusting. More importantly, shipment is by railroad, not hundreds of trucks.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Well, the heavily inbred "stock" potatoes grown strictly for fries and chips are fairly nasty (little/no food value, most of the food value is in the skin of the potato anyway and most "processing potatoes" are bred to have ridiculously thin skins so they are easier to process into fries and chips and stuff with minimal effort to peel and minimum loss from peeling-- "table potatoes" like Russets are bred with thicker skins but ridiculously large and starchy for "fluffy" baked potatoes and mashed potatoes and stuff like that). If you get "heirloom" varieties of potatoes or "colored potatoes" like blue or red or purple potatoes, which are more like the original potatoes found in the wild of the Andes mountains in South America where potatoes originated, those are much healthier. And you're right about the railroad... THE most efficient method of moving products overland... lowest cost and most fuel-efficient per ton-mile of cargo, mostly because steel wheels rolling on steel rails has the lowest rolling resistance and therefore the least friction and waste of energy, unlike pneumatic rubber tires rolling on concrete or asphalt roads... Later! OL J R :)

[@ArmpitStudios]

@@lukestrawwalker Variety doesn't matter. Chips are the only possible way to eat potatoes. The rest-baked, mashed, fried, French fried, au gratin, etc-are gross and taste like dirt.