14 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



A VETERINARIAN WHO NURSED A YOUNG AGRICULTURE 



2. One of the broadest executive careers vouchsafed to a 

 Canadian agriculturist has fallen to the lot of Dr. John Gunion 

 Rutherford, horse breeder, veterinarian, agricultural official, 

 army officer and railroad executive. Dr. Rutherford was born 

 at Mountain Cross, Peebleshire, Scotland, December 25, 1857. 

 He was "a son of the Manse," his father being the Rev. Robt. 

 Rutherford, a Presbyterian minister at Peebles. He was edu- 

 cated at the Glasgow high school, at Edinburgh, and by means 

 of a private tutor. As a young man he came to Canada where 

 he attended the Ontario Agricultural College and the Ontario 

 Veterinary College at Guelph. Following graduation he entered 

 upon veterinary practice, being located at various points in 

 Canada, the United States and Mexico. In 1884 he settled at 

 Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, and undertook horse breeding and 

 production as a side operation to his practice. From 1887 to 

 1892 he was veterinary inspector for the provincial government, 

 being elected in the latter year to the Lakeside (Manitoba) Legis- 

 lature. He remained a legislator for four years, and was then 

 elected to the Canadian House of Commons, as a member from 

 MacDonald. 



One of his earliest duties in an official way for Canadian agri- 

 culture was to represent the Dominion at the International Insti- 

 tute of Agriculture at Rome. In 1908 he was a delegate to 

 the International Congress on Tuberculosis at Washington, and 

 was elected the same year to a term as president of the American 

 Veterinary Medical Association. In 1909 he became president 

 of the Civil Service Association of Canada, chairman of the 

 International Commission on the Control of Bovine Tuberculosis, 

 and president of the Western Canada Livestock Union. For 

 many years previous he had been president of the Horse Breeders' 

 Association of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. He 

 gained early military experience in the northwest, having served 



