Richard Adlard Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Adlard, Richard (Ithel Richard), 1915-1997
place: label: Place
content: Japan -- 1930-1940
topic: label: Topic
content: Agriculture -- China
label: Topic
content: Agriculture -- Philippines
label: Topic
content: Agriculture -- 1930-1940 -- United States
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Collection donated by Julia Needham in 1998.
creator: label: Creator
content: Adlard, Richard (Ithel Richard), 1915-1997
setName: label: See more items in
content: Richard Adlard Collection
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Ithel Richard Adlard (1915-1997) was born to Walter and Elizabeth Burrows Adlard on October 14th, 1915 in Condon, Oregon. His interest in agriculture was formed early on and continued into his highschool years. The following is an autobiographical note assembled by Julia Needham, editor of the Troy-Built Owner News and a long time correspondent of Adlard, from several of Adlard's letters. This biography was corrected and approved by him in 1995.

"As a high-school student during the Depression days in Salem, Oregon, I operated a
            five-acre fruit and vegetable garden on shares. I raised my own plants, using horse
            manure for heat and a cover made of cheap muslin impregnated with wax. The vegetables
            were sold house to house and I netted virtually nothing, but kept busy.

At a Methodist youth meeting, I heard a missionary from Allahabad, India, and set my
            sights on becoming an agricultural missionary. This idea was further reinforced when I
            studied biology and learned of Mendel's Law. I had a most inspirational biology teacher,
            Martin Elle, who encouraged me, even though I had little financially.

I got to Oregon State University (then college) where I worked part-time in the
            greenhouse through a government program for students. This was part of President
            Roosevelt's New Deal, intended to help college students during the national Depression.
            We had meaningful jobs at 25 cents per hour.

One morning my roommate read about an opening for an exchange student to Canton, China.
            I didn't know where Canton was, but checked it out and submitted my application along
            with several written recommendations. Much to my surprise, I won the Phi Kappa Phi
            scholarship and in 1937, at age 21, became a student at Lingnan University.

I was the first exchange student in agriculture; the others over the preceding three
            years had been in the social science and humanities. I was fortunate enough to study
            under Dr. Floyd A. McClure, a Rhodes scholar and world authority on bamboo, with whom I
            had biweekly conferences or field trips by bicycle to observe the methods used by local
            farmers. My textbook was Farmers of Forty Centuries by F.H. King (1848-1911), now
            available from Rodale Press.

In 1937, the year of my arrival, the Japanese bombed our university, thus disrupting our
            studies. Four exchange students stayed on while seventeen returned home.

When the American ship on which we sailed docked at Yokohama in 1938, the Japanese
            authorities came into my stateroom looking for pictures. They had probably seen my
            article predicting that Japan would take over the Philippines, which my roommate had
            translated for the Canton paper. Anticipating trouble while at sea, however, I had
            hidden my bamboo basket of negatives and other materials in a lifeboat along with a
            broadsword used in executions. After leaving Yokohama, I was relieved to find my
            belongings still in the boat.

After returning from China, I worked for Oregon State Department of Agriculture when not
            attending intermittent terms at Oregon State, thus prolonging the completion of my
            degree in crop science. I devoted all my spare time to the national, "stop war supplies
            to Japan", movement under the leadership of Dr. Walter Judd, former missionary to China
            and Senator for Minnesota, whom I met on the boat-trip home. In fact, I spent too much
            time on this effort and became quite bitter over Americans' "not our business" attitude
            and the reluctance of colleges and churches to take a stand.

When the draft for one-year training began, I drew Number 17 locally, one year short of
            finishing college. No draft board appeal process had yet been set up , so I was drafted
            into the Army in March, 1941, and discharged in August, 1945. I finished my senior year
            at OSC after returning home. Thereafter, I went to work for the US Soil Conservation
            Service, and later became an Extension Agent.

What I had learned of traditional Chinese agriculture was all but forgotten during many
            years of my working life. In the late 1960s, however, the environmental movement and the
            growing interest in organic food production recalled them to my mind, and I realized
            that much of modern organic practice was what I had observed in China under an
            agricultural system that has been used for 4,000 years.

With my interest reawakened, I began to undertake some of the traditional Chinese
            techniques in my own garden in Stevenson, Washington, located in the Columbia River
            Gorge about 30 miles east of Vancouver, Washington. I have continued to experiment in
            retirement, as time and health permit."Adlard Biographical Information, Adlard Collection, Archives Center

Adlard married his wife Evelyn in 1947, they had two sons. Adlard died on August 22, 1997 in Vancouver, Washington.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Cubic feet (3 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1936 - 1998
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Collection transferred from Pete Daniels, curator, Division of History of Technology (now known as the Division of Work and Industry), Agriculture Collections in January 2001.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0692
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Correspondence
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged chronologically.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., September 2002.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence -- 1930-1940
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection consists of some correspondence, extensive agricultural notes, photographs, maps and a scrapbook from Adlard's time as a student at Lingnan University. Adlard's photographs, commentary, and notes on rural life in both China and the Phillipines are extremely detailed and insightful. The collection includes articles written by Adlard, that were inspired by his time in the Orient, on Philippine cocoanut production, Chinese village life, the farmers of China, soybeans as food and pre-war China. The collection also includes Adlard's later articles for various publications and his correspondence with Julia Needham of the Troy-Bilt Owner News about Adlard's work with drip system irrigation and design as well as his use of Chinese farming practices in his own home garden. The collection also includes some brief biographical information on Adlard, some related gardening and agricultural pamphlets and two copies of the Garden Way Inc. publication, Gardening Beyond the Plow. This collection is valuable in its view of rural China and the Phillipines just prior to World War II and the domination of East Asia by Japan. The collection is arranged chronologically.