Testimonial letter from Christopher P. Caroll
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Christopher P. Caroll Bsc. It is "Exhibit A-499" in the Noles collection.
The original letter was handwritten. The image below links to a pdf file of the original letter. It has 2 pages.
 This letter's handwriting was neat and regular enough to have been transcribed automatically by OCR. It DOES have a problem though, namely that the photocopy is not well centered and more than a few words are cut off on the right edge. The wiki has taken the liberty of filling in the blanks when obvious or highly likely, and leaving the OCR's question marks when not, with a few instances of inserting the writer's probable intent in [square brackets]. 166 Rullion Road, To whom it may concern : I am an agricultural scientist on the staff of the Agricultural Research Service of the United Kingdom. Since 1967 I have been employed as Senior Scientific Officer in a small team based at the Sa(?) Crop Research Institute, which is investigating problems of adaptation, disease resistance and utilization of primitive South American potatoes in the Northern Hemisphere (see, for instance, carroll, C.P. (1982) 'A mass-selection method for the aclimatization and improvement of edible cliploid popatoes in United Kingdom'. J. Agric. Sci Camb. 99: 631-640). Prior to entering this field of work I was employed as a cytologist at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station (1957 onwards) studying reproductive processes in forage grasses from warm temperate areas (see, for instance, carroll, c.p. (1966) 'Autopolyploid(s?) and the assortment of chromosomes'. Chromosoma, Berl. 18-19-43). I first came in contact with the distinguished philosopher and spiritual teacher, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, while travelling in India in 1976. He was at that time leading [his] community in Poona, Maharashtra State, which beside[s its] primary purpose in the area of meditation and religion education was also concerned with creative crafts and (?) and the cultivation of a quite wide range of food plants I found a higher level of awareness than was usual in India of the problems of plant disease and the need to match cultivars to environment and husbandry technique(s.?) I was later able to arrange for seed samples of various m(?) cultivars of tomato and bell-pepper to be sent to Poona where they were trialled for suitability in the ashram gardens. Recently I had the opportunity of visiting the new community established by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the State of Oregon, U.S.A. (City of Rajneeshpuram). The communal enterprise has been set-up in a remote and arid area which has been reduced by poor range-management in the past to semi-desert, subject to serious soil-erosion. I was surprised to find that in only two seasons of development, a productive truck-farm has been established and that dairy cattle and winter wheat are being raised successfully. On the truck-farm a wide range of vegetable cultivars are being tested for performance under local conditions. Scientifically planned irrigation and control [of] ground-water are being practised. The ecological balance in the area is being protected and restored through avoidance of pollution, and composting and recycling of waste. Although Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh originally trained in philosophy and religion his understanding of modern society and its problems seems to be outstanding, and he has a rare ability to inspire large groups of people to care for, and improve, the environment by a combination of hard work and the application [0f] up-to-date scientific knowledge. Rajneeshpuram is a unique experiment, which could perhaps only have come about in the United States and which is of international relevance is the field of agricultural renewal. It would seem to me to be a retrograde step if it had to be terminated because of administrative difficulties concerning a visa for this outstanding Indian national. Yours faithfully, |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
