FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 195 



one man who brought out a sow and two litters of pigs, twenty-one pigs 

 in all; he had brought in everything, runts and all. Another man, show- 

 ing in the same class, brought out a sow and one pig. According to the 

 decision of the secretary at that fair, the one pig filled the class. He 

 had told this man, over the telephone, if he brought down one pig it 

 would fill the class for a producing sow. So, in placing those before me, 

 according to that classification, was wrong. I had to give the sow with 

 one pig the prize, as against the sow with twenty-one, and every one 

 very good, with the exception of one or two runts. Now, I think we 

 ought to call for a class with a sow with four or six pigs. 



From the standpoint of sheep, I happen to recall some sheep at one 

 fair at which I judged, where there was an exhibit of seventy-five or 

 eighty that would not contest because all exhibits had to come under the 

 classification of medium, fine and coarse. 



I think a good deal of good work is done along this line by the judge 

 himself. In showing hogs with my father for about ten years before I 

 went to judging at fairs, and working with and handling hogs a good 

 many years before that, I often recall his remarks. He used to say, "A 

 good judge is a man that keeps his ears open and mouth shut," and there 

 is something to it. Yet, I feel that after you have done your best with 

 the right kind of men, you can suggest to them changes in their premiums 

 which they will accept and be grateful therefor; and I think that every 

 man who judges fairs ought to do that if he finds there has been a mistake 

 like in the case referred to, where the two fellows exhibited producing 

 sows, where on'e fellow had a sow with one pig, as against another who had 

 a sow with twenty-one, and they are going to change that to a sow and 

 four pigs in a brood, instead of a sow with one pig. 



When we were taking up this work, I received a letter from one of the 

 secretaries asking that we take up the question of races and race horses. 

 I am not much of a race horse man. To be frank, that is a "dip serum," 

 and something we are going to keep away from and let you work out in 

 your association work. We are going to leave that matter entirely to 

 you. I am reminded at this point of an expression that Mr. Kennedy 

 has often made. The statement is, with due apologies to Mr. McLaughlin, 

 that "wherever there was one fast horse in a community there were 

 twenty fast boys, and the horse is not worth a nickel if he is not fast, 

 and the boy is not worth anything if he is fast." For that reason, we 

 are going to steer away from that part of the show. But we do figure on 

 taking up these three things: The classification of premiums on live 

 stock, the classification on grain and classification on whatever the 

 farmer may produce outside of these. Speaking of this classification of 

 sweet corn, pop corn, red and yellow dent corn, we had that very thing 

 happen in the northern part of the state. I saw Mr. Lewis judging 

 horses, sheep, etc., for the champion quality for the best ten ears, and 

 he had the first ten ears of pop corn and ten ears of sweet corn and 

 they asked that they be judged along with Reid's champion yellow dent 

 corn, and asked for the championship. I think we cannot adjust these 

 things. What I would like to do is to get suggestions from the secretaries 

 that are here. We would like, also, to hear from any secretaries having 

 ideas as to uniform classification laws. I understand, from Mr. Clark, that 



