# Joseph Yuill

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**Joseph Yuill** was a [Canadian](/source/Canadians) [farmer](/source/Farmer) and [educator](/source/Educator).

Yuill was born to Alexander Yuill and Ellen Aitken-head in [Ramsay Township](/source/Ramsay_Township,_Ontario), [Upper Canada](/source/Upper_Canada) in 1838. His father had emigrated there from [Glasgow](/source/Glasgow) in 1821, and started farming [grains](/source/Grain), as well as [cattle](/source/Cattle), [pigs](/source/Pigs) and [sheep](/source/Sheep). When his father retired from farming, Joseph inherited the farm, which he named *Meadowside*. On March 10, 1864, Yuill married Margaret Cochrane. The pair would have a total of nine children.[1]

The Yuills began breeding [Shropshire sheep](/source/Shropshire_sheep), [Berkshire](/source/Berkshire_(pig)) hogs, and [Barred Plymouth Rock chickens](/source/Plymouth_Rock_chicken), but the most important animals raised on their farm were [Ayrshire cattle](/source/Ayrshire_cattle), which they began breeding in 1868. At the time, most farmers preferred cattle breeds useful for both meat and [dairy](/source/Dairy), while Ayrshire cattle are [dairy cows](/source/Dairy_cow). The Yuills' Ayrshires' began winning prizes at local [fairs](/source/Fair), and at exhibitions in [Toronto](/source/Canadian_National_Exhibition) and Ottawa.[2] The farm eventually had a herd of 75 Ayrshires, which Yuill claimed was the largest in Canada. In 1893, one of the Yuills bulls won first prize at the [Columbian exposition](/source/Columbian_exposition) in [Chicago](/source/Chicago).[1]

Margaret supervised the dairy, which began producing high-quality butter that attracted notice. The farm produced 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of butter a year.[3] The pair created Ontario's first "travelling dairy", giving seminars and lectures on butter making.[1] This began when [Aaron Abel Wright](/source/Aaron_Abel_Wright), a Renfrew merchant and butter-dealer suggested the pair give a lesson at a Farmers’ Institute meeting in his hometown. The first such lesson attracted more than 600 attendees, and Wright financed a week-long series of such lessons, with two a day. The couple started regularly giving such lessons, to groups at Farmers’ Institutes, the [Ontario Agricultural and Experimental Union](/source/Ontario_Agricultural_and_Experimental_Union) and the [Dairymen’s Association of Eastern Ontario](/source/Dairymen%E2%80%99s_Association_of_Eastern_Ontario). These would cover subjects such as milk handling, butter making, raising calves and winter care of chickens. Joseph also wrote articles in agricultural journals. He was the president of the [Dominion Ayrshire Breeders' Association](/source/Dominion_Ayrshire_Breeders'_Association) from 1891 to 1893.[1]

When Yuill died in 1905, his farm covered 600 acres (2.4 km2), and included two large stock barns and a windmill. The farm *Meadowside* was left to his son Alexander, and a second farm in [Elmhurst](/source/Elmhurst,_Ontario) was left to his son Andrew. He died on the farm *Meadowside*, the same place he had been born, and his body was buried in Auld Kirk Cemetery near [Almonte, Ontario](/source/Almonte,_Ontario).[1]

## References

1. Campbell, S. Lynn & Bennett, Susan L. ["Yuill, Joseph"](http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/yuill_joseph_13E.html). Vol. 13.

1. [*Sessional Papers — Legislature of the Province of Ontario*](https://books.google.com/books?id=sntOAAAAMAAJ&q=Yuill+Ayrshire&pg=RA5-PA129). Ontario Legislative Assembly. 1887. Retrieved 2009-01-15.

1. Ontario Agricultural Commission (1881). [*Report of the Commissioners \[and Appendices A to S\]*](https://archive.org/details/reportcommissio02woodgoog). C. Blackett Robinson. p. [265](https://archive.org/details/reportcommissio02woodgoog/page/n349). Retrieved 2009-01-15. Yuill Ayrshire.

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