Winter Meeting. 335 



THE WORLD'S- FAIR MEDALS. 



(Prof. li. R. Taft, Chairman of Jury of Awards.) 



For several months frequent mention has been made in the papers 

 of the medals that had been awarded to various states for their fruit 

 exhibited at the St. Louis Exposition, but so far as the awards made upon 

 fruit were concerned, anything that appeared previous to December i 

 was a matter of mere surmise and had no basis whatever in fact. While 

 the awards in most of the other departments were made in October, 

 from the fact that entries in the Horticultural Department were made 

 up to November 15, it was impossible to make up the awards previous 

 to that time, and not a single award was made, much less announced, 

 upon the fruit exhibit, until after that date. 



•The reports frequently seen that a certain state took the first prize 

 upon its apples, another upon its peaches, and a third upon its pears 

 or grapes, are also misleading and incorrect, as the awards were not 

 made in that way, and in a strict sense were not competitive each being 

 upon its own merits and without regard to whether there were similar 

 exhibits or not. As was the case in other departments, the awards upon 

 fruits were made after the exhibits had been scored, usins: a definite 

 scale of points. This varied with the class of fruit, but in a general 

 way it included "Extent of Exhibit," "Size of Fruit," "Color," "Form," 

 "Flavor, and Texture," and "Freedom from Blemishes." In all cases 

 the "Extent of Exhibit" was given 20 points as a maximum, while the 

 others range from 15 to 25, according to their value in the different 

 fruits, with a total of 100 points. It will be noticed that, counting out 

 the score for "Extent of Exhibit," only 80 points could be made by an 

 exhibit. This was arranged to adapt the scores to the rule that an 

 exhibit scoring from 60 to 74 points should receive a bronze medal ; if 

 from 75 to 84, a silver medal ; from 85 to 94, a gold medal, and when 

 from 95 to 100 points were scored it should receive a grand prize. With- 

 out the "Extent of Exhibit" score, it will be seen that it might have been 

 possible for an exhibit of a dozen plates of Jonathan apples to secure a 

 "Grand Prize," while, under the score cards used, a silver medal would 

 be the highest award that it could receive. This virtually made a silver 

 medal a "first prize" so far as the merit of the fruit itself was concerned. 

 That considerable merit would be required to obtain a silver medal can 

 be seen from the fact that if a cut of more than one point was made 



