DAIRY MEETING. I3I 



cattle in America came together at one time and decided what 

 was a true description of the Jersey cow. That description was 

 not accepted until it had been discussed very thoroughly. The 

 head of the cow was discussed, her form was discussed, her 

 height, the size of her legs, the length of her legs, the form of 

 her tail, her udder : every phase of the animal was discussed very 

 thoroughly, and finally a description was drawn up which 

 showed plainly what the parts most desirable and undesirable 

 were, and their true valuations. I have here the score card of 

 the American Jersey Cattle Club. It is the same score card that 

 we are using at our fairs today. It represents a knowledge that 

 is gained by the study of many animals, men coming in contact 

 with men who are the best breeders in the land, men who have 

 had to do with the foundation of herds. An unskilled person 

 or a person with considerable skill can hardly take one of these 

 score cards in his hands and commence to judge an animal and 

 do it understandingly. He must have a large amount of knowl- 

 edge of the subject so that when he closes his eyes or turns in 

 another direction he has a picture before him of the ideal Jersey, 

 or Ayrshire, or Holstein. When he judges one breed he must 

 be able to shut out all others. He must be able to have in mind 

 the perfect animal of the breed he is judging, or as near as he 

 can approach to it. It is an easy matter to pick out the first, sec- 

 ond and third best, but how near perfection are they? When 

 we take our cattle to a fair and they are judged by incompetent 

 men, we feel that we have gained nothing. We have a right to 

 demand that the judging be done by experts who know when 

 they examine our animals critically how near the standard they 

 approach. It requires skill, it requires knowledge. It is the 

 same kind of skill that we are trv'ing to teach down at the Uni- 

 versity. Our boys are studying score cards and studying breeds. 

 We do not expect to make skilled judges of them, but we do 

 expect to teach them so that they can complete the work by 

 themselves. 



Let us consider this score card for the Jersey cow. The head, 

 of course, is an important part of the cow, but you will notice 

 that it is given a valuation of only two points. If you will fol- 

 low down the card you will notice that the udder is given a 

 larger valuation. The fore udder is given thirteen points and 



