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. Joun 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. Rost. 
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 
