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 PRoressor Craic 
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 DeEWitT 
C. Wine 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 Joun A. Craic marked the close of an eventful 
career in livestock husbandry. PRoFEssor Cratic was born 
December 25, 1868, at Russell, Ontario, and 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), MarsHaLi, FeRcuson, KENNEDY, RUTHERFORD, 
McLean and Curisti£E. 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 
