10 



make up the awards in accordance with the marks appearing in these 

 papers. 



Working in this way, it is scarcely possible for the judges to make 

 mistakes, for they would, as it were, be pointedly asked how the 

 different exhibits relatively stood in regard to every point which an 

 animal ought to possess ; and any one can see that this would be of 

 immense advantage in judging, in so far as it is not the ability to say 

 when the attention is called to it, whether a point is good or bad, 

 which constitutes the judge (for almost every one who knows anything 

 of stock can do that) ; but it is the faculty of passing the whole of the 

 points in review before the mind's eye which does so ; and in propor- 

 tion as this faculty is possessed in a greater or less degree by the judge, 

 so is his award to be depended upon or questioned. The point system, 

 as has been said, brings every point under review, and would therefore, 

 with ordinarily competent judges, insure correct awards to an extent 

 which cannot possibly be attained in any other way, and this especially 

 with the points and their values fixed, as has been proposed, by the 

 principal Agricultural Societies. 



Where the entries are few, it is generally easy to give correct 

 awards ; but if they are numerous, and many of them of nearly equal 

 merit, the animals must be taken to pieces and examined point by 

 point, otherwise erroneous decisions are certain to be given ; and surely 

 it is better that this should be done systematically, in " black and 

 white," than as it is at present mentally, if at all, " by rule of thumb." 

 Some few judges are, perhaps, able to give correct decisions under 

 such circumstances ; but in most cases the judges, without going 

 through the exhibits point by point, setting down the proper value of 

 each point as possessed by the different animals, and summing up the 

 numbers thus alloted to each animal, would be all abroad, and would 

 fail, as they now frequently do, to give thoroughly correct awards ; for 

 not only would they overlook defects and excellences in the exhibits, 

 but being bound by no authorised scale or value of points, they allow 

 their prejudices with respect to certain breeds and points to lead them 

 into error. 



This is especially the case as regards the judging of the stock 

 exhibited for the challenge cups, offered at the great summer shows, 

 and the principal Christmas exhibitions of fat stock in England : 

 and here again the point system would enable correct and uniform 

 awards to be given, although the animals might be of three, four, or 

 even fire different breeds. To do this properly, however, the committees 

 of these societies and associations would require to ascertain the difference 

 made by dealers and butchers in purchasing fat stock of the different 

 breeds on account of the superiority or otherwise of the meat, and the 

 lightness or heaviness of the offal of one breed compared with the 

 other, and agree to a fixed allowance for the possession of, or deficiency 

 in these qualities, the allowance to be represented by a certain number 



