50 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



MASTER MINISTER OF DOMINION AGRICULTURE 



14. One of the most aggressive and successful farmers known 

 to the Dominion of Canada was the Hon. John Dryden, Minister 

 of Agriculture for the Province of Ontario from 1890 to 1906. 

 Mr. Dryden was Canadian-bred, but of English blood, his father, 

 James Dryden, having come out from Sunderland, England, in 

 1820. The taste for the soil that so permeates the inherent instincts 

 of the Britisher led him to rural pursuits, and John Dryden was 

 born, twenty years later, on the broad acres of Maple Shade in 

 the well tilled region to the east of Toronto. 



Shorthorn cattle and Shropshire sheep were Mr. Dryden's first 

 and permanent love. Even when the Duchess way was acknowl- 

 edgedly the only way of fashionable breeding, the foundations of 

 a Scotch herd were gathered at his farm, and the first importation 

 of Shaw & Dryden included the famous Mimulus, dam of the 

 Cruickshank (89) pride, Royal Duke of Gloster. Her calf in Mr. 

 Dryden's hands was Barmpton Hero, for many years in the herd 

 of the Messrs. Watt; a notable show bull and a creative breeder. 

 More importations of the Cruickshank kinds were made in 1873, 

 1880, 1882 and 1883. Many animals that played stellar roles in 

 the Dominion or in the herds of Harris, Potts, or Kissinger across 

 the border, came in these lots (Royal Barmpton, Violet Bud, 

 Baron Surmise and Lord Glamis), but the climax came in 1887 

 when Mr. Dryden purchased and brought across the entire herd 

 of Edward Cruickshank, which contained some outcrosses sup- 

 posed to reinvigorate the Sittyton blood. 



John Dryden was a particularly stablizing influence in the 

 troubled days of the Bates decadence and the Scotch ascendancy. 

 He sought ever to restrain speculation and to keep open the 

 trade doors of Britain, Canada and the States to pedigreed stock. 

 During his later years his duties as Minister of Agriculture 

 restricted his operations with his own herd, but he found time 

 to be president of the American Shropshire Registry Association 



