Series III. Professional Papers, 1910-1961

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.