In a country famous for her vast wheat fields and whose chief industry is - and must continue to be for many years - agriculture, the need of a standard work on this important subject by a competent writer is apparent. Of the few Canadian writers with a practical knowledge of farming in Canada, who have attempted to blaze the trail for the newcomer or help the old settler with advice born of long personal experience, none occupy such a pre-eminent position as William Rennie.<br><br>Unusually successful in all departments of agriculture and with the gift of imparting information on the most prosaic subject in a fascinating manner, his personality was a potent factor in the elevation of farm work to the science of agriculture. By precept and example he enriched farm life in this country, and did much to lift it from the deadly routine which was rapidly depleting the rural population of its young life.<br><br>The author came into national prominence by winning the first Silver Medal presented by the Agricultural and Arts Association of Ontario for the cleanest and best-managed farm in the province, while his brother, the late Simpson Rennie, who occupied the Rennie homestead in Scarboro (Ont.), won the Gold Medal.