OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 77 



THE STOCKMAN'S SCHOOLMASTER 



24. "A gentle soul full of modest stillness and humility, with 

 a vision and taste of the wonder, beauty and meaning of life, 

 may not pass this way without leaving indelible tracks, even in 



the shifting sands And so the life of Professor Craig 



may move to its appreciation the pens and lips and hearts of 



many folk who did not know the man When he was 



returned to Mother Earth it was too late for him to see the monu- 

 ments that hundreds of unknown friends had erected in their 

 own hearts to his patient, suffering, simple life." Thus DeWitt 

 C. Wing paid tribute to a man who was as sincerely mourned in 

 his death as any who had ever donated his life to agriculture. 



The passing of John A. Craig marked the close of an eventful 

 career in livestock husbandry. Professor Craig was bom 

 December 25, 1868, at Russell, Ontario, an^d was reared among 

 Canadian stockmen. He possessed an innate love for animal 

 life and a patient gentleness of spirit that is won only by those 

 who live in perfect communion with nature. He sprang from 

 Scotch stock, his home being in that section of Ontario that has 

 given so largely of its sons to quicken our agricultural progress, 

 Carlyle (32), Marshall, Ferguson, Kennedy, Rutherford, 

 McLean and Christie. His elemental subjects were learned in 

 the rural schools, but he gained his science at the Ontario Agri- 

 cultural College and the University of Toronto. 



His first influence on agriculture was exerted in 1889 through 

 his connection with the "Canadian Livestock Journal," but in 1890 

 he was called by Dean Henry (20) to Madison to become the first 

 head of a purely livestock department in an educational institu- 

 tion. His work was that of a pioneer, but he builded broadly 

 in establishing methods of research and outlining systems of 

 teaching. He based his theory on the principle that accurate 

 and scientific knowledge of animals can be acquired only from 



