JUDGING AND SELECTION 247 



the part of the judge which is to blame. The judgment of the chap. 

 person who is comparing the exhibit must enter into the score, VI " 

 and experience should guide him in marking each point on the 

 card. There are some men who are born judges, who can 

 intuitively judge by eye without the aid of a score card ; there 

 are a few who even claim to find the score card a hindrance, 

 because their perception and summarizing of points go together 

 so quickly ; but we believe such men are rare. 



There are so many points in an exhibit, that one may easily 

 place undue value on those which can be seen at a glance, 

 such as length of ear, uniformity, narrow sulci, good colour 

 and good tips, to the neglect of such important points as shape 

 and depth of grain, circumference and shape of ear, yield per 

 ear, percentage of grain to cob, and the like. To the average 

 judge of maize, the score card is of great assistance in just 

 such cases. 



201. Methods of Judging. — The aim in judging is to de- 

 termine which is the best exhibit, by careful comparison with 

 a uniform standard scale of points. It is desirable to keep the 

 separate scores of different exhibits side by side for comparison, 

 and the most convenient way to do this is to have a printed 

 score card of uniform size and shape. In scoring any point, it 

 is useful to have the exhibits which have already been judged 

 also laid out side by side, so that at any time a comparison 

 of scores already made may be easily and quickly noted. Where 

 there are many entries and the scoring is at all close, it is well 

 to refer from time to time to the score previously given for the 

 same point in the other exhibits. Unless this is done, it is 

 difficult for the judge to keep clearly in mind the exact " cut " 

 made on a point in previous cases. 



The stewards, judge, and assistants should use care not to 

 injure the ears, which should be handled as little as possible, 

 and should not be broken. If damaged by falling, the loss of 

 grain will affect the percentage of yield. 



Good light is necessary in order to detect poor colour of 

 grain and cross-bred grains. A convenient table is essential 

 to good judging ; it should be of such a height that the judge 

 can see both tips and butts without handling the ears, and 

 so that he need not stoop unduly to examine them. The 

 judging table should be of such size and so arranged that 



