78 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



a Study of the animals themselves. In 1896 he went to Iowa 

 where he organized the material for and published a 200-page 

 book on "Judging Livestock," still the classic on this subject. 

 It has gone through seventeen editions and many thousan4s of 

 volumes, but its story is not yet fully told. In 1899 he arranged 

 the first interstate student's livestock judging contest at the Trans- 

 Mississippi Exposition at Omaha. 



Professor Craig felt seriously the handicap of failing hear- 

 ing and a permanent lameness in one leg, and in 1901 he 

 deemed it best to retire from college life. As soon as this 

 decision became known he was ofifered the managing editorship 

 of the Iowa Homestead, in Des Moines. Here the quaint sim- 

 plicity of the pastoral genius that introduced his utterances in 

 his text book, received a fuller rein, but his editorial life was 

 too short. Failing health could not stand the confinement and 

 the following year he practiced farming in Barron Co., Wiscon- 

 sin. The season was too severe, however, and he found relief 

 at San Antonio, Texas, where he established Oakmore Farm. 

 Here he did some of his best work as a writer, and spent the 

 happiest and most hopeful period of his life. 



As his health was improving, he accepted in 1903 the position 

 of dean and director of the Texas Agricultural College and 

 Experiment Station, but the play of politics was too much for a 

 man who never sold his manhood nor sacrificed a principle. He 

 returned to Oakmore in 1906 only to be called two years later 

 to Oklahoma. A factional political fight dealt illy with him 

 here and he resigned at the end of the 1909-10 school year. At 

 a tremendous sacrifice of energy, he had given these institutions 

 new direction and new life, and he had blazed a way that has 

 made it easy for his successors to follow. He returned from 

 Stillwater to Oakmore and after a brief illness passed beyond 

 on August 9, 1910. 



