138 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



I want to say just a word more. Last winter, at a demand 

 made by this Dairymen's Association over at Waterville, the leg- 

 islature passed an act that judges shoud be employed who should 

 use the score cards in judging all classes of pure bred animals, 

 at the state fairs, or else the societies should forfeit the appropria- 

 tion from the State. Every county society receiving $300 or more 

 was also required to do this. They got the score cards and took 

 them to the fairs and got judges to go there, but they had some 

 difficulty in getting the judges to use the score cards. They had 

 never had any difficulty in getting judges to come and say, this is 

 the first, that the second, etc., but how near perfection did they 

 come ? The man who leads the cow home says, I have the best 

 cow there was at the State Fair, but has he any idea how good 

 she is ? If she is the best one, to his mind she is the perfect cow. 

 You will see how imperfect a standard the man has before him, 

 w^hen every cow and sheep and pig is judged by comparison, not 

 with a standard but with each other. The judges attempted to 

 use the score cards but they were not familiar with them, and a 

 great deal of dissatisfaction was created. 



Now, are we going to lose what we have gained ? Here is an 

 attempt to help educate our boys along the lines of animal indus- 

 try, and are we going to allow it to be thrown away simply 

 because we do not understand it and because it was so imper- 

 fectly conducted this season? 



