LIVE STOCK BKEEBEKS' ASSOCIATION. 235 



I know that some are saying, "Let him attend the fairs, that is what 

 they are for — to teach the people." Have any of j'ou eA'er considei'ed the 

 actual condition of an average young man, not a breeder, at our great 

 live stock expositions? He is just beginning, we will suppose, or in any 

 event, he realizes his deficiencies and has come to learn. 



This friend of ours at the fair, he looks in vain for specimens illus- 

 trating market classes — for exhibits representing the market end of the 

 live stock business. He sees fine specimens of pure bred animals — undet 

 blankets. He discovers one uncovered and a number of interested parties 

 standing about evidently examining it as an interesting specimen. Being 

 eager to learn, he edges up to it a point or two; everybody is looking wise 

 and saying little — or nothing. Shortly he ventures a question — of course 

 it is an awkward question, but it is an honest one, from a questioner who 

 doesn't know that it is an awlcward place for questions and that almost 

 anything pointed is out of order. In any event his question is certain to 

 express his fundamental ignorance. They were debating, each in his own 

 mind, weighty and delicate questions. He does not belong In their class, 

 and they know it, and his questions prove it, and he knows it — now, so 

 that the answer he gets, while not intended as a- rebuff, serves as such, 

 and he soon learns wisdom by experience and lieeps still. 



He thinks perchance to fare better with an attendant and gain some 

 information through him. Vain hope. He may learn some day that it is 

 one of the high arts to get anything valuable out of an attendant. 



But surely this seeker after knowledge, this neophyte who goes about 

 expressing liis ignorance, hungry for the very crumbs of knowledge, surely 

 he will fare better at the show ring. Not very much better. He sees 

 perhaps the finest specimens of many breeds — different attempts under 

 different conditions to meet needs that stand out clearly defined in the 

 minds of great breeders, but that to him have barely an existence with 

 the most hazy outlines. 



He sees tlie judging going on from a distance. He can not get close 

 enough to the animals to study them, if he knew how. He sees the 

 ribbons tied and knows that a decision has been reached, but it means 

 nothing to him. He saw that the judge was in a brown study. What was 

 he thinking about? Wliat comparison was he making? He would really 

 like to know, but nobody ever will know all that was passing through the 

 judge's mind — the nice discernment to detect good and bad, the keen judg- 

 ment to weigh relative values and the diplomatic considerations that went 

 to make up the decision. These are the really valuable elements of the 

 show, but they are a part of the machinery and not of the show. So 

 this man goes home feeling that he has seen some great animals, but 

 their connection with market demands, or with his affairs, is yet a puzzle 

 to him, and he does not know, and will never learn in this way what con- 

 stitute the distinguishing characteristics of either market classes or the 

 different breeds. 



