Philip Vincent Cardon Papers

The Philip Vincent Cardon Papers cover the time period from 1916-1961 and measure 5.5 linear feet. The collection includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, reprints, unpublished lectures and research papers, outlines and notes for radio talks and skits, and some memorabilia. Part of the collection was compiled into a scrapbook.

The collection is organized into four series. Series I, Personal Papers, provides basic information on Cardon's family genealogy and activities related to his Mormon faith and leisure interests. Cardon was a prolific writer, and Series I as well as the scrapbook in Series IV contain many examples of his poems, essays, and other compositions.

Series II, Educational Papers, contains documents related to Cardon's involvement with his alma mater, the Utah Agricultural College (U.A.C.). Cardon was an active U.A.C. alumnus and often contributed research updates and other reports and essays to the school's yearbook and student newspaper. Series II also contains a few papers from Cardon's graduate studies at the University of California Gianinni Foundation of Agricultural Economics in the 1930s.

Series III, Professional Papers, contains a selection of documents, photographs, and correspondence from Cardon's long and varied career in agriculture. The main part of Series III focuses on his tenure as Director of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station from 1928-1935. There are also selected documents from his work at the Nephi Substation in Utah, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), University of Montana, and Utah Farmer (see also Series IV for additional information). Series III ends with a few items from Cardon's final positions as Director of the USDA Graduate School from 1952-1954 and Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization from 1954-1956.

Series IV contains a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, documents, photographs, and correspondence that was basically organized in chronological order. The scrapbook contains many examples of Cardon's writing, including research articles, speeches, editorials, essays, and poems. It begins with Cardon's research reports from the Judith Basin Experiment Station in 1918 and ends during his tenure at the USDA Agricultural Research Administration in 1941. Series IV supplements the papers and other documents found in Series I to III.

Series I. Personal Papers. 1916-1941. 0.5 box.

Series I consists of papers and correspondence related to Cardon's Mormon faith, family history, social activities and leisure interests, including writing, acting, golf, and football. Cardon often wrote about everyday life under the pen name of Sam Swain, described as "a man of the soil…who gets queer delight in philosophying" (see Series IV, Folder 7). Series I and IV contain many examples of Cardon's essays, poetry, and social commentary. The materials are arranged in chronological order.

Series II. Educational Papers. 1920-1951. 1 box.

Series II includes lecture notes, articles, and course papers, mainly from Cardon's tenure in the mid-1920s at the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension Service, which was closely tied to the Utah Agricultural College (U.A.C.). Cardon often reported on the research being conducted at the experiment station and lectured in a special course on agriculture for Utah bankers. He was a keen supporter of the U.A.C., his alma mater, and wrote several articles for the Buzzer (the U.A.C. yearbook) and Student Life (Cardon was editor of Student Life while he was at student at U.A.C.). He was also active in the alumni association, athletic council, civic associations, and several honorary scholastic societies and fraternities.

Series II also contains selected papers and documents related to Cardon's academic work at the University of California Gianinni Foundation of Agricultural Economics. He earned a master's of science degree in agricultural economics from the foundation in 1933. The materials in this series are arranged in chronological order.

Series III. Professional Papers. 1910-1961. 2.5 boxes.

Series III contains research papers, outlines for skits and radio talks, lectures, essays, opinion pieces, and photographs related to Cardon's 40-plus years in agriculture. The series does not contain many items from Cardon's early career (1910 to the early 1920s), when he was developing his interest in dry farming at the Nephi (Utah) Substation and later at the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He returned west in 1918, first to the Judith Basin Substation in Montana, and then to Utah, where he gained administrative experience at the Branch Agricultural College and developed writing/editorial skills at the Utah Farmer. See Series IV for additional information from this time period.

The largest section of Series III (folders 33-104) focuses on Cardon's tenure at the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station from 1928 to 1935. Cardon was appointed to the experiment station in charge of work under the Purnell Act of 1925, which provided federal funding to state agricultural experiment stations for research on agriculture as well as the related economic and sociological factors. Cardon's primary responsibility at the station was to summarize and correlate the results of experimental work, mainly related to agricultural economic production.

He also focused on areas of particular interest to southwestern states, such as dry farming, irrigation, subsistence farming, range management, and land-use policy. In addition to his research interests, Cardon drew on his editorial experience at the Utah Farmer to manage publicity for the Utah Agricultural Extension Service, providing updates to newspapers and local groups.

Cardon returned to the USDA in 1935 as Head of the Division of Forage Crops and Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry. He served as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the Fourth International Grasslands Congress in Aberystwyth, Wales, and also toured a number of European countries to study grassland practices. Folders 107-127 contain reports and photographs from the trip. Cardon received the USDA Distinguished Scientist Award in 1948 and retired as Administrator of the Agricultural Research Administration in 1952. Series III ends with a few documents from his final positions as Director of the USDA Graduate School from 1952-1954 and Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization from 1954-1956. The materials in this series are arranged in chronological order.

Series IV. Scrapbook. 1919-1941. 3 boxes.

Series IV consists of a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, photographs, reprints, correspondence, and other documents. The items in the scrapbook were arranged for the most part in chronological order. Before rehousing the scrapbook pages, a title or description of each item was recorded in a numerical list in order to document the original order of the scrapbook. The scrapbook pages were then separated into small groups, still maintaining the original order, and placed in archival folders.

The scrapbook begins with Cardon's reports on research from the Judith Basin Experiment Station in 1918 and ends during his tenure at the USDA Agricultural Research Administration in 1941. There are many examples of Cardon's writing, including research articles, speeches, editorials, essays, letters, poetry and personal opinion pieces. The scrapbook supplements the documents found in Series I to III.