THE JUDGING OF LIVE STOCK 129 



tion. No business that offers no incentive to greater effort 

 profits a man much. The production of beautiful and use- 

 ful animals can not but bring out the best there is in a man's 

 character; while at the same time he is rendering a service 

 to his fellow man by producing something that adds to the 

 wealth of the community. We call a man a great artist 

 who paints on canvas a beautiful picture of a magnificent 

 horse, but what shall we say of the man who bred and raised 

 this horse to his perfect state? Is he not the greater artist 

 of the two? 



The use of the scale of points, or score card, as it is often 

 called, is a first step in the systematic education of the person 

 who desires to learn how to judge live stock. The scale of 

 points was first originated in 1834, on the Island of Jersey, 

 as has been stated in the Jersey section of the chapter on 

 cattle. Some of the people on the island felt that something 

 should be done to improve their cattle. So they selected 

 two cows, one of which they thought had the nearest perfect 

 form in the front half of the body, while the other was con- 

 sidered to have a perfect rear half. Then they placed a 

 numerical value on each of these best halves of the body, using 

 these two cows to furnish a standard or model with which 

 to judge other cows. They also selected two bulls, and made 

 a score card for the males by the same process. As a result 

 of this unique method, "A scale of points for Jersey cows," 

 as it was called, gave the cows 27 points; and another scale 

 gave the bulls, and the heifers not in milk, 25 points. The 

 people on Jersey made a practical application of the use of 

 the scale by comparing their cattle with these standards. 

 The people derived much benefit from this method of judg- 

 ing, and their cattle were gradually improved. They revised 

 this scale on several occasions, and among other things finally 

 adopted a uniform standard of 100 points for each sex. 



