News from our rich agriculture history

George C. Creelman’s life was dedicated to his two greatest passions: higher education and agriculture. As president of the Ontario Agricultural College (O.A.C.), Creelman helped to establish the place of agricultural science as a legitimate and practical discipline, and earned international renown for himself and his school.

In spite of his later contributions to agriculture, George Creelman was not born on a farm. The son of a music teacher, George was born in 1869 in Collingwood, Ontario. When George was nine years old, the Creelman family moved to a fruit farm in Grey

Howard Laing was one of the most foremost figures in the history of Ontario horticulture. Hutt was born on a farm in Stamford township in Welland, Ontario, the oldest of seven children. He began his education at Cornell University before completing a degree at the Ontario Agricultural College in 1891 with a B.S.A.

He was made the head of the horticultural department at the Ontario Agricultural College in 1893, a position he held until 1908. He combined the O.A.C.’s practical and academic programs, and under his leadership many improvements to the horticultural program at