The Canadian Horticulturist. 



PROMINENT CANADIAN HORTICULTURISTS-XXI. 



Mr. John Craig, Ottawa, Ont. 



NY person who has heard Mr. Craig address a meeting 

 of farmers or fruit-growers, on subjects connected with his 

 department of study, must be impressed with a sense of 

 the practical knowledge and scholarly manner of the Hor- 

 ticulturist of the Central Experimental Farm ; and the 

 more one becomes acquainted with him, the more one 

 becomes satisfied with the propriety of his appointment. 

 Nor is it only his natural fitness for this work that justifies 

 his appointment, for this is also backed up by previous 

 training exactly suited to his present requirements. 



John Craig is a native of the Province of Quebec, and was born in 1864, 

 at Lakefield, Argenteuil County. When he was eight years old his father moved 

 to Abbotsford, to take charge of that well-known experimental farm belonging 

 to the late Charles Gibb, where so many hardy Russian and other apples were 

 under test ; a property which has since come into the possession of Mr. Craig's 

 people. It was on this farm at Abbotsford, and associated with so learned a 

 horticulturist as Mr. Gibb, that Mr. Craig received his first impressions in horti- 

 culture. After completing his public school course at Abbotsford, he was sent 

 to the high school at Montreal. This course completed, he returned to Abbots- 

 ford and spent two years as the private secretary and assistant of Mr. Charles 

 Gibb It was at the suggestion of the latter that he entered the Iowa Agricul- 

 tural College, as a special student of horticulture and allied sciences ; he thus 

 came into contact with Prof. J. L. Budd, whose visit to Russia in company with 

 Mr. Gibb, to gather hardy fruits for testing in North America, has been fre- 

 quently referred to in our reports. Mr. Craig remained at this college for three 

 years, completing his course of study there, and receiving a diploma in the class 

 of 1887. 



During the period of his college work, he employed his summer and winter 

 holidays in practical nursery and greenhouse work, and his last year, as assistant 

 of Prof. Budd, in the important branches of hybridizing, propagating and test- 

 ing varieties. 



On the organization of the Iowa Experiment Station, he was elected 

 assistant director, and was given the special charge of the Department of Horticul- 

 ture. During his stay at this Station, he was sent out by the Board of Control 

 on a botanical expedition, with the especial object of making as complete a col- 

 lection as possible of the wild and cultivated grasses. In the pursuit of this 

 work he made an extended tour through Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oregon, 

 Utah and Colorado. 



