CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 57 



ing- by score card, the card has its uses and abuses. The card furnishes 

 a record of the judge's opinion, if he has one, and if he has not it re- 

 veals the fact. In show room work I prefer the use of the card only 

 where the judge has become expert in its use. In the case of ninety- 

 eight judges who have come under my personal observation in the use 

 of score cards on animals, I found that few of them worked with a de- 

 gree of accuracy, that their variation in test work where the same ani- 

 mals were repeated on them in an irregular and puzzling manner so as 

 to defeat any effort, whatever, at memorizing, and to compel them to 

 rely solely on the merit of honest estimate of the various specific re- 

 quirements of the animals, amounted to a variation of i-8 of one per 

 cent. No one can claim for any system of judging that no variation 

 whatever, of a person's estimate occurs, and I firmly believe that a cor- 

 rect card properly used will produce results more accurate than is possi- 

 ble by any other system of judging. Please do not understand me to 

 affirm that no variation occurs in score card work ; but I do contend 

 that the same judge on the same specimens would do more inaccurate 

 and consequently more varying work without the card than with it. 

 granting that he be equally experienced in the two methods of judging. 

 The simple truth is that without the card his errors are never revealed, 

 while with it, he goes on record in every detail, and from the fact that 

 the mathematical estimate of outs sometimes falling between 1-4 and 

 ^, or whatever the case may be, the slight variation would, at times, 

 occur and would show against the judge, were the specimen being shown 

 repeated on the judge. Thus it is that the argument against the score 

 card judge on account of an occasional variation in the test work, and 

 in favor of the comparison judge, where his shortcomings are not re- 

 corded, finally narrows the matter down with the exhibitor to the con- 

 soling stage of mind that "ignorance is bliss." 



But to lay aside all preferences for or against the score card as a 

 means of judging corn, I have a much greater, more constant and more 

 beneficial use for it as a handy means of carrying, in condensed and well 

 grouped form, the standard values and specific requirements of corn for 

 seed and for market purposes, but particularly in that a reference to the 

 card occasionally calls my attention to any oversight that I might make, 

 and it is for this purpose that I find the card of incalculable value. 



I believe that a score card similar to the following one should hang 

 above every farmer's desk, to be used as a breeding directory in the 

 selection of his seed corn, and that great good would result from such 

 a practice. I present herewith a score card I have worked out for my 

 own use. 



