POULTRY EXHIBITIONS 549 



is room to spare, exhibitors are still often allowed to place in ' ' sale 

 classes " any stock they choose, and sell from these for immediate 

 delivery ; but as shows increase in number of entries, this leads to 

 many abuses, and furnishes opportunities for evasions of the neces- 

 sary rule that exhibits must not be removed until the close of the 

 show. If authorized to do so and given a fixed price, show ass6ci- 

 ations usually undertake to sell exhibits on commission for exhibi- 

 tors not in attendance. An exhibitor giving a price on a bird 

 entered thereby authorizes the association to sell the bird at that 

 price, and according to custom the association is obliged to sell 

 the bird at the catalogue price to the first person who claims it 

 and pays the money down. 



Balancing exhibits. Balancing the exhibits of poultry to add 

 to the general attractiveness of the show is a matter to which the 

 experienced show manager gives a great deal of attention, often 

 going so far as to offer liberal rebates on entry fees to exhibitors 

 who will send varied exhibits of rare specimens of good quality. 

 The manager of a small show has no inducements to give to the 

 professional exhibitors of the rare and odd varieties that interest 

 the general public more than the classes in which competition is 

 keen, but he ought to make special efforts to get entries (if only 

 one or two specimens) from breeders of all varieties and all kinds 

 of poultry in which there is little interest. In the absence of better 

 quality any specimen that will pass for a representative of an 

 established variety helps to fill out and balance a poultry show. 



Practical exhibits. Dressed-poultry and egg competitions inter- 

 est the ordinary visitor to a poultry show more than the live birds, 

 because every one feels that he is something of a judge of merit 

 in food products. Exhibits of this class are much harder to get 

 than exhibits of fancy live poultry, not only because poultry shows 

 are mostly held at the season least favorable for making displays 

 of this kind, but because most of the exhibitors are not especially 

 interested in these lines, and because winning prizes on eggs and 

 dressed poultry at a poultry show does not give an exhibitor such 

 advantage over other producers as does winning prizes on Standard- 

 bred birds. No competitive dressed-poultry and egg exhibits of 

 any importance have ever been made in America, except in a few 

 cases where state and provincial governments have given liberal 



