No. 4.] JUDGING BY SCALE OF POINTS. 107 



able, and yet it seems to me that it is one of the passing 

 fads. 



The lecturer was asked if the color of a horse, other 

 things being equal, indicated his power of endurance. He 

 rei)lied that he did not think, other things being equal, that 

 there was anything in the color of a horse that would aflect 

 him. There is a demand to-day for chestnuts as against the 

 darker colors, but the general market demand is for solid 

 colors. 



Mr. P. A. EussELL (of Great Barrington). Doctor, what 

 do you think of that old saying, ' ' One white foot, buy it ; 

 two white feet, try it ; and three white feet, deny it " ? 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. Well, I think it is one of the old say- 

 ings. I do not think there is anything to it. I do not think 

 it is indicative, on the one hand, of superior strength, of 

 good qualities, or, on the other, necessarily of weakness. 



No horse should be scored as perfect in any part, because 

 perfection had not yet been reached in breeding, and the 

 Doctor did not believe, therefore, that it should be indicated 

 in scoring, because the moment it is fixed in the mind that 

 an animal has reached perfection there is nothing more to 

 1)6 gained. One judge might score a horse 99 or 99|. 

 Another would score the same horse 82. Both of them are 

 just in their measurements, but they work from a diflerent 

 standpoint. One feels that perfection has practically been 

 reached, and the other that there is room for improvement. 



Right here we touch an important phase of the question. 

 Because two men vary in their work some consider the sys- 

 tem at fault, whereas the criticism has no weight. If a judge 

 preserves his relative ratio of values throughout the class, 

 he has administered justice to each exhibitor. Another may 

 establish a different ratio, but not change the result in the 

 least. Uniformity in ratio of cuts will come by education. 

 What the exhibitor asks is that the work be honestly done 

 at the time. Tills ratio cannot be established by any fixed 

 rule; it must be left to individual interpretation, the pro- 

 tection of the exhibitor being; the score-card and the black- 

 board, where the work of the expert becomes a matter for 

 public criticism and inspection . 



Beino; asked what caused a horse to overreach, the Doctor 



