238 PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 



for the beautiful birds and have an eye for their points 

 of superiority. 



Having this excellent equipment of natural qualities, 

 he may by the exercise of his talents in the school of ex- 

 perience gain such skilfulness as will varrant the em- 

 ploying of his services in adjudging the awards of prizes 



The poultry judge should become a persistent stud- 

 ent of the standard and ought to have experience in 

 breeding fowls of the class which he attempts to judge. 



The tendency of the times is to specialize in poultry 

 judging. The judge who has the necessary qualities 

 and training and confines his judging to one breed or 

 its varieties or to a single variety should prove capable 

 of rendering most satisfactory service in the show room. 



Deafness appears to be, in some ways an advantage 

 to a judge and occasional dumbness is not a bad char- 

 acteristic. 



Certainly he should have a mind of his own and 

 possess a large stock of common sense. 



Expertness in the scoring of fowls is but one of the 

 accomplishments of a good poultry judge. He should 

 be qualified to weigh well and quickly, almost intuitive- 

 ly, the relative importance of minor and dissimilar de- 

 fects in comparing birds showing close competition. 



In some poultry shows judging is done by what is 

 termed the comparison system. -Score cards are not 

 used. 



In applying this plan, judges are instructed to con- 

 sider carefully each and every section of the fowls, giv- 

 ing due value to both shape and color according to the 

 standard scale of points for the breed. 



Practically the judge does score the birds although 

 no record of the defects is kept, except a mental one by 

 the judge. 



In shows where the classes are very large this sys- 

 tem of judging by comparison allows of rapid work in 

 awarding the prizes. 



Whatever the system of deciding the awards, the 



