The Rural Voice, 1998-06, Page 55frUTL ER
BERG
EQUIPMENT
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Book Review
Canada to recreate the story of this
fascinating man.
He was born a fifth -generation
descendant of Colonel John Butler, a
United Empire Loyalist who helped
found Ontario.
Life was a constant struggle for
his parents trying to eke out a living
through various part-time
occupations. After being encouraged
in his art by a school teacher he set
out on an equally precarious
existence for himself. He was an
artist in a rural world that didn't
value art. Even his great successes
put him in financial jeopardy. He
convinced the Minister of
Agriculture to provide copies of his
true type animal paintings to all
classrooms, but his handshake
agreement required him to do all the
up -front work at his own expense:
creating the paintings, getting
agreement from the various breed
associations that these were indeed
the true types and getting the plates
made to print the copies. He had no
money, but a group of prominent
Woodstock business people came to
his aid, providing financing. He
rented a new studio at their
suggestion but he also bought new
clothes and a new car because he felt
he had a position to uphold, and hired
a secretary. Before the project was
finished he'd run short on money and
the backers refused to advance more.
And so it went through his life. He
created an AI unit at Woodstock but,
being privately owned, it was at a
disadvantage to co-operative units.
He operated a busy livestock
exchange in the 1950s but hard times
meant farmers couldn't meet the
payments and he ended up with 100
cows on his hands — and the milking
machine repossessed by the finance
company.
But despite the struggles he's the
subject of books and magazine
articles even after his death in 1995
and he is a member of both the
Ontario and Canadian Agriculture
Hall of Fame. Some successes can't
be measured in•dollars.0
Journey to Perfection — The
Agricultural Art of Ross Butler: by
Irene Crawford-Siano, Quarry Art
Books, PO Box 1061, Kingston. 160
pages, $29.95.
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JUNE 1998 51