Introduction

This article presents a historiographical comprehension of the Farmer`s Guide, emphasizing aspects of its materiality, circulation and appropriations in the federal agricultural professional teaching; it analyses moral and hygiene teaching as well as instruction about scientific agriculture that the book intends to spread among the rural population. Two editions of this guide have been analyzed and organized in 5 volumes and they were published in 1969 and 1970 by the Agriculture Department of Rio Grande do Sul. Each edition has got 5 volumes and as the title suggests, it is aimed at the farmer.

Even though the term “guide” has been used, the book presents materiality, targeting, functionality and contents which are different from old and traditional reading guides focusing on rudimentary teaching. However, concerning the Farmer’s Guide, it is not possible to compare it with that small traditional guide books used for literacy process as well as teaching reading practice. The one which was used as a set of artifices in order to facilitate decoding of the alphabet and also presented pages with small texts which were illustrated with different colorful pictures. These guides were also used to disseminate moral contents (^{Boto, 2004}; ^{Maciel, 2002}). The five volumes of the Farmer’s guide present texts and contents which are accessible to a literate adult group with reasonable domain of reading and writing skills as well as basic maths. As it is emphasized in the book, in the letter aimed at the farmer, “it is not the alphabet, but it will work as an “elementary agreement “with essential information about social labor dignity and rural life. The ´Guide` means Vade-Mécum: Go by my hand, and I will take you. (Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v.5, p. 273).

So, the similarities between The Farmer`Guide and old and traditional reading guides, many of them circulating in the second half of the twentieth century, when the guide Book was published and circulated - attached to the emphasizing moral contents and the motivation to make farmers and their families develop and keep reading habits.

Dear farmer: If you know someone who doesn’t know how to read, do everything possible to make him learn, indicate a school or try to get somebody who wants to teach him. The one who doesn’t know how to read is like a blind person that can’t see anything. Do everything possible to make your family find out about the reading habit. Develop this good habit together with your children. Set aside a shelf in a wardrobe or try to buy a simple bookshelf and put your books on it. It will be your library. Put the Farmer´s Guide on it next to the other books, your friends for all times and moments. (Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v.1 p, 186).

The comprehension about the Farmer´s Guide stablished in this book makes use of studies concerning the production and circulation of Roger ^{Chartier´s printings. (1998}, 1999, 2003) Searching and trying to understand ways, textual strategies and intentions of the authorship / edition and materiality. The research also welcomes work contributions about the history of agricultural teaching and the aspects of Brazilian ruralism. (Conceição, 2012, 2015; ^{Nascimento, 2004}; ^{Mendonça, 1997}) it also dialogues with other interpretations about the senses of Farmer´s Guide. (^{KLANOVICZ, 2007}).

Materiality and objective of The Farmer´s Guide

As it is highlighted by ^{Chartier (1998}) the devices shown in a printing reveal textual strategies and the author´s / editor´s intentions.

Against the representation elaborated by its own literature and resumed by the most quantitative of the stories in the book - according to which the text exists by itself, isolated from all materiality - it must be remembered that there is no text out of the support to read (or listen to). and underline the fact that there isn´t a text comprehension, whatever it is, and that it doesn´t depend on the different ways it reaches the reader (p. 17).

This way, the support of the farmer´s guide, 1969 and 1970 editions is presented in its five volumes with dimensions of 18 cm x 27cm, printed in mechanical composition using common paper. The 1969 bookbinding is like a brochure notebook, that is, the core is stitched on the spine of the book and glued to a soft cover which is made with a sort of paper that is thicker than the pages inside. The front cover presents a colorful illustration and the same is repeated in all volumes of the edition. The 1970 edition has a hard cover and stitched center. All volumes with a blue cover and without illustration showing the title of the book, volume, covered topics, promoter body, city and year of edition. Some aspects of materiality can be observed in the following pictures.

Source: Farmer's Guide, v.5 (1969). João Ribeiro Library collection. Sergipe Federal Institution - São Cristóvão campus.

Picture 1 Cover of Farmer´s Guide (1969) 

Source: Farmer's Guide, v.1 (1970). João Ribeiro Library collection. Sergipe Federal Institution - São Cristóvão campus.

Picture 2 Cover of farmer´s Guide 

In both editions, all the volumes are presented with internal divisions: cover, back cover, cover page, back cover page, work plan, volume plan, thanks, (chapters) and general index. In volume one, there is a presentation which is denominated “Letter to the farmer”, and in volume 5, there is a conclusion denominated ¨ The closing letter ¨. In both editions of the guide, the organization and the content are alike and present pages with texts, illustrations with drawings and black and white pictures. The footer of all pages always presents a highlighted spell in bold type. The following picture shows internal aspects of the guide in which some of these characteristics are identified.

Source: Farmer´s Guide, v. 1, 1970, p. 60.

Picture 3 Internal aspect of the Farmer´s Guide (1970) 

The Farmer´s Guide was made by the Agriculture Department in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and it was edited and published by Edições Tabajara² which is based in Porto Alegre. The production of the book was coordinated by the agronomist engineers Oswaldo Baucke and Nilson Gonçalves Maia and they had a great collaboration³ from the Rio Grande do Sul State Department as well as federal and state entities, higher education institutions, research institutions, technical schools, institutions of agricultural assistance and the participation of several professionals, above all agronomist engineers. The printing doesn´t show any data about the edition. Concerning the circulation, ^{Klanovicz (2007}) says that the guide “[…] was widely distributed in the gaucho rural area, also reaching the west of Santa Catarina” (p. 12).

This work presents direct short texts which are generally in the shape of scheme with examples, illustrations showing how to do some specific activities, recipes, rural hygiene procedures and moral precepts, technical information for the rural environment - among other things, a calendar to help farmers with the best time for planting and harvest of some products. In both editions, the work presents ten parts divided into five books (volumes) and each one of them corresponds to a theme developed in denominated divisions called ¨items ¨. The following board presents the Farmer´s Guide five volume plan with information about themes or topics covered in each volume and the amount of pages.

Concerning the objective and the topics covered in the Farmer´s Guide, Luciano Machado, the agriculture secretary of Rio Grande do Sul addressed the farmers and dear readers through a ¨presentation letter¨ in the year the work was published. This letter highlighted the fact that the work could be used as a ¨road map of how to proceed¨ for the farmer.

The farmer´s Guide examines not only your life together with your family but also the housing conditions. The earth and what it represents, the crops and plants, the animals, the production, profits and your actions in the community. In each volume of the guide book you will find a road map of how to proceed step by step so that your work becomes more productive, safe and economically effective. (Farmer´Guide, 1970, v.1, p. 12).

Source: Farmer´s Guide, v. 1, 1970, p. 11.

Picture 4 Farmer´s Guide (1970) 

In the ¨Closing Letter¨ volume 5, once again it is emphasized the farmer as an official receiver of the work and the wish that the guide worked as a ¨bedside reading¨ for him and all the family.

The ´Guide´ should be a ¨bedside reading¨, as a daily usage for parents and children, in the comfort of home. The Guide will be the way to progress and will also have the merit of valuable legacy to the man´s heritage, especially the ones who work with the land to produce enough food for the body and the spirit (Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v.5, p. 273).

This way, The Farmer´s Guide represented an ambitious project and had the intention to work as a complete ¨good manners treaty or a manual for a better quality of life on the farm. A confirmation device where the farmer would get the most out of it and use it as a ¨very precious¨ instrument for the progress of agriculture production and human and animal health as well as the spread of moral and hygiene behavior in the rural area. This way, the guide´s concern was to disseminate what was officially considered ¨good habits¨, fighting old habits / or traditional living of the rural population, having an identification with a direct and moralizing spirit of that time.

It was observed that the field or farm representation is considered a little behind and their residents have some bad habits concerning hygiene and these bad habits should be corrected. As it was highlighted in some documents in the 70s, education was seen as a solution “[…] to help farmers learn how to identify the causes of their delay, at the same time enabling them to find out solutions to their own problems¨ (BRASIL, 1972, p. 98). In this particular context, The Farmer´s Guide should work as a framing device for the rural people contributing to forge a productive and moralized farmer according to the authoritarian estate´s ideas. So, according to ^{Klanovicz´s interpretation (2007}), the guide stablished “[…] some sort of ´ideal type´ of worker and from the rural world that opposed the traditional and archaic farmer without hygiene and health and still hadn´t been exposed to technical assistance and modern rural extensions” (p. 5).

Concerning the technical scientific knowledge shown in the work, the permanence of the modern discourse of Brazilian agriculture can be seen through the vulgarization of the scientific agriculture performed by the rural extension service. That is, it was all about the vitality and historical permanence of “[…] faith in the science as a high capacity to promote the agricultural rehabilitation of the country” (^{MENDONÇA, 1997}, p.68), emphasized by the agronomic field since the beginning of the twentieth century. The ¨regeneration¨ of the Brazilian culture kept depending on the performance of the specialized technicians because the farmer´s knowledge could not handle the new ¨renovation process¨ that was supposed to eliminate agricultural “delay” in the country.

Circulation of the Farmer´s Guide in the Federal Agricultural teaching

During the first decades of the twentieth century, intellectuals evaluated that the improvement of the economical, moral and mental conditions of the rural population should happen through instruction, for instance, the construction of classrooms for the development of theory classes and specific areas for the demonstration of agricultural practice to help the rural population (TORRES FILHO, 1926 ). The spread of agriculture teaching was announced as an important action for the development of the Brazilian agriculture and also to promote changes in the farmer´s cultural practices. As it was said before, during the production and circulation of the farmer´s guide this speech about Brazilian agricultural modernization through the use of new techniques and know how to boost the agriculture productivity and the farmer´s instruction, continued in a very active way.

In the 70s, the Ministry of Education kept a chain of agriculture schools where professional agriculture teaching was developed through a model which was denominated Farm School⁴. In 1966 there was an agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture⁵, Alliance Technical Cooperation Council for Progress (CONTAP) and The United States Agency for International Development⁶ (USAID) whose objectives were the restructuring of the Brazilian Agricultural Technical Teaching and the development of the agricultural sector, through the “[… ] expansion of the agriculture services extension, rural credit, the production and the use of agricultural machines, chemical products, pesticides, fertilizers etc.” (^{ALVES, 1968}, p. 90). The contents which were disseminated by the Farmer´s Guide present consonance with this perspective of Brazilian Agriculture development for the constant encouragement to agricultural mechanization, the use of agricultural chemistry and many other inputs which were a result of agronomic researches. Likewise, the guide´s content plan presents similarities related to the knowledge which is projected into the subjects of professional agriculture teaching area and these are very frequent in the curriculum structure of the agriculture teaching¨, published by the Ministry of Culture and Education through the Board of Agriculture Education that determined as disciplines of “technical culture” subjects like: agriculture, zootechnics, rural industry, agriculture mechanization and rural economy (BRAZIL, 1970, 1977).

However, the proximity of the guide with the agriculture teaching goes beyond the similarity with recommended contents in the work with curricular guidelines of this kind of professional teaching in evidence at that time. Although the work was neither produced focusing circulation in a national level nor for a school material, it ended up being purchased by the Ministry of Education through the Teaching Material National Campaign⁷ (CNME) from the School Material national Foundation (FENAME) and distributed among the Agriculture Schools in the 70s, twentieth century. Consequently, the presence of two complete editions of the Farmer´s Guide in the collection of João Ribeiro Library belonging to Benjamin Constant agriculture School located in Quissamã, São Cristóvão city in the countryside of Sergipe was due to the delivery of books sent to the institution by FENAME.

The origin of of Benjamin Constant agriculture school goes back to 1924 when São Maurício Agriculture Employer, institution whose objective was to give assistance to underprivileged people under the age of 18 and agriculture training was founded by the president of the state, Mauricio Graccho Cardoso (^{NERY, 2006}). In 1934, the Agriculture employer was federalized and denominated Sergipe Agriculture Learning Center. Between 1934 and 1967, the institution was attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and developed many agriculture teaching models like Agricultural learning (1934 - 1947), Agriculture basic School (1946 - 1952), Agriculture School (1952- 1957), Agrotechnics School (1957 - 1964), Agriculture College (1964 - 1979). From 1979 on, the institution received the denomination of São Cristovão Federal Agrotechnic School and nowadays it is part of the Sergipe federal Institution (IFS) denominated São Cristóvão campus (CONCEICÃO, 2012; 2015; ^{NASCIMENTO, 2004}).

Incorporated to the collection of João Ribeiro Library, the five volumes of the Farmer´s Guide show query records made by the students of the institution in the 70s, 80s and 90s twentieth century.

Source: Loan form for the reader. João Ribeiro library collection. Benjamin Constant School.

Picture 5 Loan form - Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v. 5. 

This Farmer´s guide adventure illustrates how a printed material with educational purpose / or aimed at a particular public ends up circulating in different spaces and with different appropriations from the original purpose. This way, produced by the government of Rio Grande do Sul in order to teach local farmers, the work traveled all over Brazil and it became part of library located in a small town called São Cristóvão in the state of Sergipe. It was used by professional agriculture students. As it is highlighted by roger Chartier, the place where it was made, the aim, and for whom it was made, identify the starting point, but it doesn´t determine the arrival because the “encarnation of the text in a specific materiality take the different interpretations, comprehensions and use of its different publics” (^{CHARTIER, 1999}, p.18).

Although the guide had the objective to reach a regional public emphasizing in part specific aspects of animal breeding and traditional plantations in the state of Rio Grande do Sul / or in the south of the country, the circulation in other parts of the country could be partly explained for the notions about animal and agriculture production and specially for the work plan which is very similar to the contents taught in Federal Institutions of agriculture teaching which are set in many different states and regions in the country. That is, there was a consensus in relation to the importance of dissemination among Brazilian farmers about the new techniques and agricultural inputs, agricultural mechanization, administration and rural economy, hygiene and moralization of habits and agricultural cooperativism, important contents which are in the Farmer´s Guide.

Widespread Knowledge in the Farmer´s Guide

The Farmer´s Guide had the intention to focus on the moralization of habits, the spread of scientific and technical knowledge, and the indication of hygiene standers with the purpose of creating a new farmer´s mentality. The secretary of agriculture in Rio Grande do Sul, Luciano Machado, wrote about that highlighting the value of education for the acquisition of produced innovations because according to him, “’[…] the problems will continue unsolved if the farmer does not read, listen, learn or put into action all the modern and technical agriculture teaching (Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v.1 p.12). This perspective of agriculture modernization has been present in the guide since the illustration that is on the cover of the 1969 edition. The illustration (see picture 1) of this edition presents in foreground a farmer riding a horse and he is wearing typical clothes from the gaucha culture. In the background there are farmers ploughing the earth with manual plows and there is another man riding a tractor. Also in the background it is noticed the presence of agroindustry. Taking into consideration the discourses that circulated at that time and the content disseminated in the guide, it is evident the governmental message that ¨progress ¨ in the countryside could only be possible when ¨rural workers¨ gained scientific and technical knowledge about agriculture mechanization and also got used to the new agriculture input as a result of agronomic research.

Consequently, this “Technical Speech” in the “rural world” consisted in subordination of the countryside to the dictates of science and agriculture technology and it would be implemented and popularized by the state bodies. This technical discourse about agriculture had been present in the ruralist debates since the second half of the nineteenth century (XIX), getting more intense during the twentieth century (^{MENDONÇA, 1997}). As it was very well analized by ^{Mendonça (1997}), The “technical speech” demanded a great number of capable interlocutors and emissaries in order to welcome, understand and make use of scientific and technical prescriptions of agronomy for its success and expansion. The formation of a hierarchical ¨technical speech¨ was considered imperious, situation in which the agronomists legitimized themselves at the highest point of the hierarchical scale concerning knowledge and subordinated to them, in inferior scales, medium technicians, capable rural workers and farmers. All of them each time less resistant to the changes. Using modern agriculture technology instead of working the land in a basic and traditional way.

This way, it is observed the combat against “empiricism” as a permanence of the “technical speech” in agriculture, characteristic elsewhere highlighted by agronomy engineers. This way, the agronomist Lourenço Granato, author of many different agronomic publications and agricultural teaching, wrote in a tone of denunciation that the Brazilian agriculture “empiricism” was one of the causes of Brazilian agriculture delay.

we insist on empiricism producing at a high price everything that technical agriculture could make us produce in less time. Why? Because empiricism involves ourselves in dark shadows. […] our farmer belongs to a group of people that reads less, and as an agriculturist, he is the one who thinks he knows more. […] we are an eminently agricultural country and we are empirical farmers. Very sad reality! Whereas in other countries in which the nature was less prodigal then ours, refined instruments are used to furrow the earth and the soil is fertilized with their own materials […] (GRANATO, 1918, p.14).

Besides the combat against “empiricism” or traditional Brazilian farmers´ know and do, the organization and the contents of the guide book remind us that the agriculture modernization of the country was going through habits moralization and the adoption of hygiene standards by the country man. Because of this, as it is highlighted in the items listed in picture 2, volume 1, the theme “The man and the family”, in which the teachings about hygiene and health and the inculcation of values / or moral habits are very significant.

Spreading knowledge about the use of hygiene practice, reaching the farmer´s body and also the family´s, fighting pests, diseases and preventing accidents is therefore the emphasis of contents covered in the Farmer´s guide, volume 1. The shower, the value of a good meal, the pregnant woman´s hygiene, vaccines, first aid in case of accidents, among others, are instilled teachings aiming the preservation of health and conformation of habits. (Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v.1). For that reason, the guide uses a prescriptive and direct language indicating values and good behaviors to be followed by the farmers. This way, the organization of the traditional family, the school instruction, the farm work, the income economy, recreation and ¨health of spirit¨ are highly emphasized and valued, as it is illustrated in the following pieces of advice or flashiness presented in volume 1: “The family is the social basis of the country¨( p. 177); ¨The school is the continuation of the family” (p. 181); “The reading habit is the healthiest of all” ( p. 184 ); “Work and keep the family safe and sound” (p. 187); “The hand that economizes is the hand that doesn´t ask” (p. 191); “The work amuses the spirit and dignifies the man” (p. 194); “A healthy recreation amuses the spirit” (p. 192).

In general, these are teachings that come from Christian moral values and are devoted to fighting against addictions like alcoholism and gambling, this way, it shines through the official vision of a man who needed to be saved from ignorance and moral weakness for the habit civilization (^{KLANOVICZ, 2007}). The interest was focused on the gestation of a productive man in a context in which the discourse of the country agricultural vocation demanded instructed, healthy and moralized farmers. That is why it is necessary the fight against addiction. As the guide warns, the addiction makes the man unable to work. “Alcohol destroys the organism and disables the man to work” (Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v.1 p. 173).

Source: Farmer´s Guide, 1970, v. 1, p. 175.

Picture 6 Illustration Fight against alcoholism in the Farmer´s Guide. 

The guide was made in an exception state context, that is, the military dictatorship was in evidence (1964 - 1985). For this reason its program must be understood within the idea of society and values that the authoritarian regime tried to introduce, especially, moral and civic education. At that time the military government made this subject compulsory at all schools and all modalities of teaching (^{CUNHA, 2007}; BONEMY, 2011). This school subject was created during the military government, anchored in the “worship of obedience to the law, job loyalty and social integration in the community” (BRAZIL, 1969). The authoritarian state also used a speech dedicated to the family, The “worship of the country”, its symbols and the great figures of Brazilian History, and the membership requirement without contestation. The Framer´s Guide also made an effort to worth and disseminate all those values.

This way, the contents that make up the work reveal versatile strategies of control, conditioning, domain and inculcation of dominant patterns. The Farmer´s Guide was produced and circulated during the dictatorship period in which the parents, the school and the society were summoned to the process of construction of the moralizing and disciplined spirit according to the national security doctrine. In this context, the love for the country meant obedience to the state and subordination to the ideological precepts. Other visions of the world were considered dangerous and should be rejected.

The second volume of the work entitled “The house, the possessions and the earth”, present instructions and teachings about the rural residence and its cleaning construction, the place, the rooms, the installations and construction models. Another topic is the ¨home administration¨ emphasizing the “rural housewife´s work” (FARMER´S GUIDE, v. 2, p. 50). And it continues with content teaching which is directly related to the land management, conservationist practice of the soil and the forests.

It is interesting to realize that the knowledge / or instructions presented in this volume about rural construction and other technical information and previous knowledge about measures and lengths, geometrical forms, angles and degrees among other mathematical knowledge are demanded from the reader.

Volume 3 is the most extensive of the five volumes in the work. There are 635 pages, the double of pages of the biggest part of the work, and the approach is essentially agricultural and related to types of agricultural cultures and information about the use of the inventions of agricultural chemistry. This way, the themes are “The crops and the plants” covering some topics like agricultural care and treatment, the pests that attack many different kinds of plants, the use of agricultural defensives, and the use of aircrafts in agriculture. The following board presents all the items covered in volume 3 where regional targeting is noticed, especially for the choice to offer instructions about own agricultural crops from the southern region of Brazil and the agricultural aviation connected to regions / or specific economical segments of Brazilian culture.

“A good farmer takes care of his animal breeding” and this opens volume 4, with the title “The animals”, covers animal breeding since alimentation up to the animal health preservation techniques. In this volume it observed the interest in spreading and popularization among farmers with scientific knowledge related to health and animal production. Information and illustration about vaccine and artificial insemination are highlighted.

“The production”, “The income” and the community are the highlight of volume 5. In the “production” part, the emphasis is to teach the farmer how to collect and prepare samples / or material for laboratory exams, the use of agriculture mechanization and the different ways of conservation and production storage, among others. In the “income” part, the guide teaches the farmer about the balance sheet and accounting of the rural property and the production, commercialization of products, the cooperativism, agriculture assistance, agrarian legislation and about services which are available to the farmer through the Rio Grande do Sul Agriculture Secretary department and the Southern Association of Rural Credit and Assistance (ASCAR).

In volume 5, it is very clear the governmental interest about the fact that the farmers could know and use agronomic and veterinarian innovations and the agricultural mechanization in order to reach a better productivity in the farming plantations and animal breeding. The popularization of these techniques and knowledge would be due to the presence of agriculture assistance state agencies through the actions of rural extension and the rural association incentive to encourage the creation of agricultural cooperatives. Picture 6 shows an image from the Farmer´s Guide that illustrates the ASCAR technician visit, showing to the farmer the importance of rural extension agricultural services for the “progress” of agriculture.

Source: Farmer´s Guide, 1969, v.5, p. 184.

Picture 7 Aspects of an ASCAR technician visiting a farmer. 

The presence of the technician in the country demonstrates the confidence of the government in the advance of agricultural productivity by the dissemination of technology among rural products. The educational actions should happen mainly through the effective action of agronomists as diffusers of scientific and technological knowledge in the rural areas. The rural extensionist worked as an intermediate between the official agrarian politics and the rural producer. This action was also denominated “applied social agronomy”, or rural extensionism, with strong American influence (^{NASCIMENTO, 2004}), which was responsible for the official service of spreading and making advertisements about scientific and technical agriculture in the countryside (TIMMER, 1954). Such educational attitude from agronomy engineers, in the condition of rural extensionists, was seen by the Ministry of Agriculture as an important factor for the diffusion of agronomic knowledge among rural producers, aiming the growth of agricultural productivity and extinguish the ¨delay¨ of Brazilian Agriculture (TIMMER, 1954, p. 23).

In this technical action in the country, the vision / or description of the farmer as a “country man” or “hillbilly” or a man who was late and needed to be helped because of his ignorance, was highlighted many times

In 1956, when the first policy of rural extension and technical assistance in the country was installed by the Rural Extension and Technical assistance Brazilian Company (Embrater), the target farmer of the extension started to be described and treated as a ¨hillbilly¨ by the agronomy engineers and agriculture technicians ( at least in the beginning and the first moments of agriculture modernization policy ). Embrater was formed by the main system company and by counterparts in almost all Brazilian states such as Southern Association of Rural credit and Assistance (ASCAR) from Rio Grande do Sul or Santa Catarina Rural Credit Association (Acaresc) from Santa Catarina. After its structuring and organization, Embrater and the local Emater system fought for the national challenge to modernize the agriculture and the behavior of the rural worker which was considered a great ¨mission¨. Concerning the performance of Ascar and Acaresc, this national issue found troubles in a state and peripheral level and also studying this problem imposes some advantages and limitations (^{KLANOVICZ, 2007}, p. 4).

The knowledge about the legislation concerning fauna and flora protection, avoiding burnings, deforestation and animal predatory hunt are, are covered in volume 5 of the Farmer´s Guide. In order to persuade the farmer and / or illegal hunting, the guide makes use of illustrations and messages made by the ¨Nature Protecting Union¨. This way, next to a picture showing a dead bird because of illegal hunting, the guide presents the following text:

The murders are among us. The treacherous ‘bird hunter’, that hung our little feathered friend wickedly, lives among us. We have to find him and punish him seriously. There are many of them who destroy the nature and are a shame to any civilized nation (Farmer´s Guide, 1969, v.5, p.131).

Source: Farmer´s Guide, 1969, v. 5, p.130.

Picture 8 An educational campaign to protect the fauna in the farmer´s Guide (1969) 

Source: Farmer´s Guide, 1969, v.5, p.133.

Picture 9 An educational campaign to protect the fauna in the Farmer´s Guide (1969) 

The need to insert new techniques and new machines is available everywhere in the guide. The use of agriculture mechanization is highlighted as a way to promote benefits and improvements related to cutting down costs and increase in the agriculture productivity. The tractor, for instance, is presented as one of the most important machines of agriculture mechanization because it has many advantages like working with high load and does not have any problems facing the weather. It is a four-wheel-drive vehicle and it requires small parking space, among others.

The different skillfully engaging scenarios presented in the five volumes of the Farmer´s Guide are constantly reinforced by the greatest highlights in all pages of the five volumes. In each page, there is a maxim, each maxim is a motivation, an instruction, a recommendation, a learning process, an educational principle aimed at the country man and / or his family and the rural community.

The Guide book, through its maxims, highlights the importance of the fact that the farmer knows and makes use of the modern agricultural techniques. The ¨American challenge¨ had been launched and the new agricultural techniques would be an alternative to overcome the difficulties which had been found in the agriculture in Rio Grande do Sul as it was said by the agriculture secretary. It was necessary to produce much more in less time. The guide motivates the purchase of machines; helps with the use of adequate machinery according to the large production stock; informs that the machines multiply the work capacity. It also presents the conditions for financing modern work techniques: the agricultural credit. “With this credit, it is possible to put into practice all the things taught by the ‘guide’” (Farmer´s Guide, v.5, 1969, p. 203).

Final considerations

The Farmer´s Guide undertakes a discourse that represented the Brazilian agriculture as it was behind and indicated as a solution the vulgarization and use of scientific technical knowledge, inputs, machinery and technology for the modernization and increase of agricultural productivity. However, the speech of standardizing the country population which is used in the guide does not take into consideration the fact that not all farmers could afford to use the ¨modernity¨ that was presented in the guide. This way, the message of ¨agriculture modernization¨ is linked to medium and big rural owners and very far from the familiar agriculture, without resources to make use of scientific and technological advances which were spread by the guide. For these ones, the discourse follows the idea of habits moralization and imposition of hygienic standards.

The friendly, instructive and advisable language orientates the Guide´s message and could be summarized in the following principles: the earth as a Godsend, the agriculture work that dignifies the man and his family, the instruction that conducts the farmer to prosperity and the exaltation of country life.

At last, the whole work in general points out a context in which state programs that are directed to the rural environment disqualified the farmer traditional knowledge and thought they could teach him how to produce and live a better life. Therefore, The Farmer´s Guide must also be understood as a printed material for the control and moral formation of the individual, in this particular case, the country man.