Bench Shows and Field Trials 0.6:^ 



The rapid vogue of coursing in San Francisco 

 was measurably, if not chiefly, due to the unshak- 

 able faith of owners and public in not only the 

 bo7ia fides, but the mens cequa of the judge, John 

 Grace. When a field trial owner invests $250 or 

 $300 apiece in a string of young setters or pointers, 

 he likes to know what to expect, and he will not 

 repeat the trouble and expense if the judging is 

 unreliable and inconsistent. One umpire, referee, 

 or judge is the best system in all contests of sport. 

 Field trials will almost certainly come to the gen- 

 eral conclusion of experience. 



Including Canada and California, the recog- 

 nized public field trials number annually about 

 twenty-five on quail and chicken, with four or five 

 for the beagles, and at least two, one in New Eng- 

 land and one in Kentucky, for foxhounds. The 

 circuit on birds begins in August with the chicken 

 trials of the Iowa or Nebraska clubs and moves 

 later over into Canada, keeping the handlers busy 

 for several weeks, though most of them take a 

 rest before the quail trials open in Ohio about the 

 middle of October. The state clubs run along 

 until the first of December, the Interstate Cham- 

 pionship, now called the American Championship, 

 for winners, being decided at the conclusion of 

 the state events. The "big" private clubs, the 

 Eastern and the United States, have held trials re- 

 spectively in North Carolina and near the Tennes- 



