Leonard Harold Newman

Newman, Leonard Harold

Leonard Harold Newman, geneticist (b at Merrickville, Ont 31 Aug 1881; d at Ottawa 16 Jan 1978). From 1905 to 1923 Newman was secretary of the government-sponsored Canadian Seed Growers' Association, founded by J.W. ROBERTSON to improve agriculture by encouraging farmers to breed better strains of crop plants. He took advanced training in genetics in Sweden and succeeded Charles SAUNDERS as Dominion Cerealist in 1923. Newman's duties included licensing cereal varieties for growing in Canada and he regularly attended fall fairs to talk to farmers and explain official policies. Able to identify almost any variety of wheat he might be shown, he enjoyed challenging farmers to stump him. In 1948 he retired to the family farm settled by his grandfather, one of Colonel BY's officers, on the Rideau River and became an enthusiastic local historian.