ANGUS MACKAY.
Photograph
  



	Since 1910 Angus Mackay has been inspector of the Western Experi-
mental Farms at Indian Head. In the west his name is a household word,
because of the fact that for twenty-six years it has stood for friendship
and counsel to the farmer of the plains.
	Angus Mackay was born in Pickering, Ontario county, Ontario, on
January 3, 1840, and he received his education in the old Whitby Grammar
school. In 1866 he was lieutenant in the Thirty-fourth Regiment of Fort
Erie and was engaged in active service at the time of the Fenian raid.
So, although he is now known principally for his work of the past thirty
years in western Canada, Dr. Mackay spent the first forty-two years of
his life in the east. Angus Mackay came to the great northwest in the
year 1882 and with him were three men, Williamson, Miller and Boone,
all hailing from Pickering. They were among the first contingent of set-
tlers which came west from Ontario upon the opening of the Canadian
Pacific Railroad in Manitoba. The majority of the old Ontario immigrants
at that time were taking land in the southern part of Manitoba, and
in that district at the present day (excepting the Mennonites), the sons
and daughters of the pioneers in Bruce, Huron and Grey counties still
comprise a large percentage of the population. It is not known whether
it was because Dr. Mackay and the friends who accompanied him were
not descendants of Huron, Grey or Bruce, or because they had a more
canny genius for locating good soil, that they passed Manitoba and pro-
ceeded to lands situated on the eastern threshold of the Northwest Terri-
tories.
	At the time the four Ontario county farmers left for the western
frontier the Canadian Pacific Railroad was running only as far west as
Flat creek, at that time a point one hundred and sixty-five miles beyond or
west of the city of Winnipeg. Beyond Flat creek there was only a bound-
less expanse of prairie. On toward the western sky line, however, jour-
neyed the four settlers with their wagons and cumbersome ox-teams, for
a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, when they came to the fertile
district now surrounding Indian Head. On arriving here they selected
their homesteads, in a block, and formed a company, with themselves as
the only shareholders, deciding in this way to work on a cooperative basis.
Two of those old homes have since changed hands. They belonged to Miller
and Williamson, who lived long enough to see the wheat belt move in
jumps from the western boundary of the province of Manitoba to the
fertile plains of Peace River Valley. This little company had at first five
sections, which they later exchanged for four sections in one piece, and
this was later divided so that each shareholder was given a section of
land.  Of these four original settlers all are dead except Dr. Mackay.
However, the heirs of the other men still own their father's interests
here, and all but one of the original sections is being worked by the de-
scendants.
	The section belonging to Dr. Mackay is now being operated as a part
of a larger area, by his son. For a period of five years these four men
worked together and then, in 1887, the Dominion government undertook
to establish an experimental farm in western Canada. The following year
a farm of six hundred and ninety acres was purchased from a land com-
pany, which owned sixty thousand acres in the Qu'Appelle Valley country,
which extends north from Indian Head as far as the Qu'Appelle river.
Angus Mackay, who assisted the Dominion government in locating the
site for the first experimental farm, was appointed the first superinten-
dent, and there on the outskirts of the town of Indian Head he established
what might be called an agricultural mission, a place where men have
gone in increasing numbers during the past twenty-five years, to learn
the gospel of sensible farming. For those who could not visit the mission
in person many thousands of letters have been sent out.  Up to 1905
this Experimental farm, of which Dr. Mackay is the superintendent,
served the three territories. As the provinces of Saskatchewan and Al-
berta were formed, and the rapid influx of immigration in recent years
has given them thousands of farmers, other experimental stations have
been established by the government at Rosthern and Scott and also at
Lethbridge, Lacombe and Swift Current.  These younger institutions,
which are headed by young and capable men, are carrying on with vigor
and efficiency the work which was started by Dr. Mackay at Indian Head,
but it is still from him that much advice is sought and much information
received. In 1910 Dr. Mackay was made superintendent of the Western
Experimental Farms of all three provinces.
	Although Dr. Mackay is eighty-four years of age, he undertakes with
vigor and enterprise any work the government asks of him. In stature
he is massive, characteristic of the raw-boned type of Scotchman, and in-
dicative of great physical strength and endurance. His step is firm and
his deep-set blue eyes are clear. His finely-shaped head, with its heavy
brow, strong chin and mouth, denotes intellectual as well as physical
power, and gives evidence of faculties still to be devoted to the country's
service.  lie is referred to as the pioneer, the father of agriculture in
western Canada, and Saskatchewan people claim him as their Grand
Old Man. His manner, ever gentle, quiet and unassuming, has won for
him a multitude of friends in the western country.




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