POULTRY JUDGING 197 



A convenient comparison-judging score card is shown 

 in Fig. 3. Any number of lines needed to complete 

 an entry may be added to this card. The comparison 

 method of judging consists in a careful examination of 

 every section of the fowl, and a determination of the 

 quality by this means, the final placing of awards being 

 decided without numerical estimates. In fact, to judge 

 by comparison is to select the best, by applying, by 

 means of sight estimates, the criteria of perfection es- 

 tablished by the Standard. 



Comparison judging gives due credit to superior value 

 in individual fowls. No other system gives considera- 

 tion to unusual quality so equitably as does the com- 

 parison system. 



When properly applied, comparison judging can be 

 made more equitable in placing awards than any other 

 system; for selecting the best fowls in the classes, no 

 system is superior to it. The main objection, and, in 

 fact, the only real objection that can be made against 

 it, is that no record is made, nor is there any reason 

 apparent to the absent exhibitor for the award of prizes. 

 A record by scores and the results published conveys a 

 numerical value for individual fowls to the mind of the 

 absentee. In the score card he has comparative nu- 

 merical values of the fowls that were outside the list of 

 awards. 



JUDGING OF FARM FLOCKS AT FAIRS 

 AND SHOWS 



When at Pennsylvania State College, Mr. Kilpatrick, 

 then of the Bureau of Animal Industry, displayed a 

 remarkable interest in having farmers show their poultry 

 at county fairs. He suggested that the flocks to be 

 exhibited should consist of 6 females and 1 male, that 

 each lot be placed in a coop or runway, where they could 

 be readily viewed, and he suggested that the accompany- 

 ing score cards should be used to judge them. One 

 score card is for judging the general -purpose type of 

 fowls, the other for judging the egg-laying type. 



