Please read Understanding catalogue records for help interpreting this information and Using footage for more information about accessing this film.

Title: SEED OF PROSPERITY

Reference number: 0495

Date: 1946

Director: d. Alan Harper

Sponsor: Ministry of Information for the Department of Agriculture for Scotland

Production company: Campbell Harper Films Ltd.

Sound: sound

Original format: 35mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 18.41 mins

Description: A survey of the condition of potato crops and measures taken to combat their disease.

'Half of Scotland's crop of potatoes is grown for seed which is exported to the rest of Britain and overseas. The film surveys the history of the industry.' - from Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Film Catalogue 1957, p.121

Credits: assoc. p. Edgar Anstey
cam. Henry Cooper, Ian Barrowman
sc. Norman Wilson
comm. s. James McKechnie

Shotlist: Credits (.02) Shots of potatoes in grocer's shop. Accounts of past failures of potato crops, illustrated with drawings. Stills of old farming equipment (1.15) Drawing of William Paterson of Dundee. Dramatised reconstruction of his experiments in breeding potatoes. A "blighted" crop (2.18) Findlay Fyffe, another potato breeder. Donald McKelvie of Lamlash, Isle of Arran, and some of his potato varieties (3.13) Horse-drawn potato harvester. Men at work picking potatoes. Some examples of the various diseases that attack potatoes (4.20) Shots of potato growing areas in Scotland. Some examples of pests. Diagram showing the yield from seed potatoes (5.15) Mating two potato flowers. Seeds are taken from the fruit, planted and sprayed with "blight" to test resistence (7.42) Growers clearing diseased "rogue" plants from potato field. Inspectors checking the crop. Spraying crop against disease. Horse-drawn potato harvester. Selecting seed potatoes (11.45) The Scottish Seed Testing and Plant Registration Station at Eastcraigs, Corstorphine, Edinburgh. Experimental growing of new plants. Training inspectors. A Stock Seed Certificate. Laboratory tests on new varieties of potato conducted at Eastcraigs (14.43) Seed potatoes sent off to growers by rail and ship. Sorting potatoes for export at Glasgow Ministry of Food Station. Shot of diagram showing export (17.20) Montage of previous scenes. Shots as potatoes are eaten. Potato harvesting (18.38) ecs (18.41)