THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



grape judging from the Gardener's 

 Chronicle, may be of interest : 



"Your correspondent seems to be 



of the opinion that no man can be a 



proper judge of anything he has not 



grown. His proposition is very much 



like the old saying "He who would 



breed fat oxen should himself be fat," 



It far from follows that because a man 



is a grower, good or indifferent, that he 



is therefore the best judge of the merits 



of the thing as presented in competition. 



One of the great needs for a judge is a 



capacity to determine merits readily — in 



fact, to have a thoroughly judicial mind. 



Then he should have no bias, and none 



is so likely to have bias for or against 



certain products, kinds or varieties, as a 



grower of them. How many of our 



best judges are there who are other than 



growers ; or if they have been growers, 



have not been so for years, yet have 



judicial capacity to determine merit in 



the highest degree ? Why, in the case 



of grapes, growers like to surround the 



question of judgment with a halo of 



sacred limitation, but the man in the 



street, in this case the crowds in the 



tents, are as keen to distinguish points 



as are the smartest of growers. If there 



are judges who entertain such egotistic 



notions with respect to their own ex- 

 clusive capacity, let them mix, when a 

 show is thrown open, with the crowd, 

 and listen to the people's comments. It 

 will do much good in helping to tone 

 down complacency. I have, in a wide 

 experience of shows, extending over 

 some forty years, found more mistakes 

 of judgment made by pure growers than 

 by those not so, and having far wider 

 general knowledge and more liberal 

 ideas. After all, it is the general and 

 not the specific judge who brings to the 

 consideration of his labors, as such, the 

 least biased mind. 



The Columbia. — In response to our 

 inquiryabout the origin of the Columbia, 

 the originator, Mr. J. T. Thompson, 

 Oneida, N. Y., writes : 



" It is not a chance berry but I saved 

 the seed of Cuthberts, near a Gregg 

 black cap, fourteen years ago, as stated, 

 and with the results as shown in the 

 Columbian. I first put the plants on the 

 market in the fall of 1894, and since 

 then have sold 458,000 plants, the 

 larger part of them transplants. I have 

 received orders already for the coming 

 fall and spring, for more than my present 

 stock. 



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