James Wilson Robertson

James Wilson Robertson

James Wilson Robertson, dairyman, educator (b at Dunlop, Scot 2 Nov 1857; d at Ottawa 20 Mar 1930). Robertson farmed in Ontario from 1875 to 1886, when he became professor of dairying at the Ontario Agricultural Coll. As the Dominion government's dairy commissioner 1890-1904, he was influential in developing the cheese industry, especially in eastern regions unable to produce wheat as cheaply as the new prairie farms. He became the first principal of the Macdonald Coll of Agriculture, affiliated with McGill, in 1905 and was chairman of the influential Royal Commission on Technical Education (1909-13). Robertson's later career is obscure. Although honoured for his cheese work with the CMG in 1905, he lost the Macdonald principalship in 1910. Except for postwar work in 1919 on food supplies for Europe, he held no university or governmental appointments after 1913.