108 THE APPLE-TREE 



ing" of the fruit by those experienced in these matters. 

 This excellent exercise of judging fruits at exhibitions has 

 gained much headway. Students of schools and colleges 

 are trained for the "judging teams," and great technical 

 perfection has been attained. 



To be exact is an exigency of science. I fear that we 

 make exactness an end, but that is neither here nor there 

 on this occasion and I shall not now pursue the subject 

 further ; I hope the judging trains the judge to see what 

 he looks at in other things as well as in apples, that it 

 leads him into the pleasant paths of causes and effects, 

 that it opens the eyes of the blind. 



The customary judging of plants and animals and 

 their products consists in assessing the attributes against 

 a scale of perfection. Thus, if "form" or "conformation" 

 is worth 10 points in the hundred (by the estimation of 

 good authorities), the judge must decide whether the 

 particular animal before him merits 6 or 7, more or less. 

 So if "flavor" in an apple is considered to be worth 20 

 points of the hundred, the judge makes up his mind what 

 rating, within that limit, he shall accord to the fruit he 

 is testing. The arrangement in tabular form of the feat- 

 ures for any product, with the number of points stated 

 for each, all summing 100, constitutes a "score-card." 

 Thus there may be a score-card for Merino sheep, another 

 for Shropshires, one for apples, and for any other objects 

 whatsoever. 



At competitive exhibitions, the element of comparison 

 comes in. Perhaps it is the only criterion to be considered 

 in a particular case, — whether this apple is better than 

 that or than any number of others, which of several 

 "plates" or samples of apples merits first mention, which 



