First Dairy School in Canada National Historic Event
Saint-Denis-de-La-Bouteillerie, Quebec
Children care for calf
© Bibliothèque et Archives Canada | Library and Archives Canada/National Film Board fonds | Fonds de l'Office national du film /e011176824
Address :
5 Highway 132 East, Saint-Denis-de-La-Bouteillerie, Quebec
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1953-05-26
Dates:
-
1882 to 1882
(Established)
Other Name(s):
-
First Dairy School in Canada
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
2018-CED-SDC-03; 2008-CED-SDC-11
Importance:
First dairy school in North America, founded by Édouard-André Barnard in 1881
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: Saint-Denis-de-La Bouteillerie, Quebec
Édouard-André Barnard (1835–1898), Jean-Charles Chapais Jr. (1850–1926), and Damase Rossignol (1848–1901) established the first industrial dairy school in Canada near this site in 1881. A lawyer by training and an agricultural journalist by profession, Barnard went to Europe on behalf of the Quebec government to study agricultural practices in the 1870s. He subsequently helped create a school to teach butter and cheese production as a way to improve the quality and boost the yield of creameries in Quebec and thereby increase sales at home and overseas. The school closed in 1884, but a creamery remained on the property until 1965.