Editors' note. — In connection with the article on com judging it is 

 desirable to emphasize again the fact that the original selection of ears of 

 corn for seed purposes should be made in a cornfield before the com is 

 cut and husked in order that the corn plant, as well as the ear itself, may 

 be considered in selecting the seed. The use of the score card, however, 

 as outlined and explained in the following article, has educational value 

 and is a basis for the formation of practical judgment in the selection of 

 seed corn. Teachers will find it helpful to use in preparation for and on 

 Com Day. The score card, as outHned by Professor Montgomery, dif- 

 fers somewhat from those that have been pubHshed in other 3'ears, but it 

 is identical in principle, and seems to be an improvement over the old 

 score cards. It can be used to score single ears and exhibits of ten ears 

 each. 



Corn judging is largely based on certain artificial standards of perfection. 

 Judging consists in determining how closely a certain ear, or set of ears, 

 conforms to the ideal standard. The practice is useful in developing 

 powers of observation and critical examination. 



In order to insure that all characters of the com are examined in a 

 comparative way, each character is considered separately, and given a 

 value in accordance with its importance. The characters may be classed 

 into two groups, namely, practical points and fancy points. 



Practical points include those characters that have to do with the seed 

 value, such as germinating quality. 



Fancy points include those characters that have to do with s}-mmetry 

 and trueness to type, such as shape of ear or shape of kernel. 



The score card is used by beginners to insure systematic work, but after 

 a while the score card may be discarded. Experienced judges seldom use 

 a score card. 



Many score cards have been devised, all of which are arbitrary. The 



