268 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



develop the mental side of his nature. From 

 the public school to Brantford Grammar 

 school, and thense to Victoria College, Co- 

 bourg, he was led in his studies. From 

 Victoria College he graduated as Bachelor 

 of Arts in 1868, taking the gold medal for 

 the year for the highest rank in general pro- 

 ficiency. Thus closed the second period of 

 his life, and the seven years of study and 

 preliminary training. After graduation he 

 taught for a while in the Cobourg Colle- 

 giate Institute, from which position he was 

 promoted to the headmastership of the 

 Brantford High School. This institution 

 was then in rank a third or fourth rate 

 school ; under Mr. Mills it soon became a 

 Collegiate Institute, and began to attract at- 

 tention as one of the most successful for 

 training young men and young women for 

 general work, for teachers, and for univer- 

 sity examinations. The growth of this 

 school and its reputation for thoroughness 

 and good discipline suggested a man for the 

 Agricultural College when the presidency 

 became vacant. The offer came to Mr. 

 Mills from the Government entirely unso- 

 dicited, and was accepted in the summer of 

 ,1879, when began the fourth period of his 

 life, the work in which he is still engaged. 

 The Ontario Agricultural College had been 

 established in 1874, and for many years had 

 many and great difficulties to contend with. 

 We sometimes hear a great deal about the 

 agricultural colleges of the United States, 

 but they have been forced, in order to main- 

 tain an existence, to enlarge the scope of 

 their work by including technical, teachers, 

 and even commercial courses. In many of 

 these colleges the agricultural course has 

 been the least successful. The attempt, 

 therefore, to maintain an Agricultural Col- 

 lege on its own merits in this province has 

 presented peculiar difficulties, and the suc- 

 cess achieved is much to the credit of the 

 various officials who have from time to 



time guided its course. When Mr. Mills 

 became president the college was still work- 

 ing up hill, fighting its way with little en- 

 couragement, and with much opposition. 

 For the past twenty-four years he has de- 

 voted his unstinted energies to the work. 

 The college is a large institution, and has 

 presented extraordinary problems to solve. 

 It has had a hard struggle to gain the recog- 

 nition and approval of the very class for 

 which it was established. It has all the per- 

 plexities attendant upon a large boarding 

 school. It has had to overcome the preju- 

 dice aroused by having had, in its earlier 

 days, a number of students who were not 

 agricultural in their bringing up or in their 

 inclination. The students are now coming 

 from the best farms in the province, and the 

 institution is becoming more and more 

 every year an Agricultural College for On- 

 tario. 



The work of the college has been greatly 

 enlarged during President Mills' regime by 

 the addition of third and fourth year 

 courses, and affiliation with Toronto Uni- 

 xersity, whereby the degree of Bachelor of 

 Science in Agriculture is conferred upon its 

 students. 



The high esteem in which President Mills 

 is held by the farmers of Ontario, and the 

 very high regard in which he is held by the 

 leading agriculturalists of the United States 

 prove that his work has been successful. 

 Personally, President Mills has the best 

 wishes of all; he is known as a man of en- 

 ergy and thoroughness. He has shown the 

 greatest courtesy to the many thousand 

 farmers with whom his work brings him in 

 contact at Guelph and elsewhere; he has 

 kept himself free from party politics, and is 

 as acceptable to Conservatives as to Re- 

 formers. His administration of affairs is 

 clear and above reproach. He has never 

 been known to seek praise or publicity, to 

 sound his own praises, or encourage others 



