538 POULTRY CULTURE 



treatment of the subject here will consider first the small show such 

 as may be held by a small group of poultrymen in any town or by 

 the poultry students at an agricultural college, describing methods 

 of promoting and managing such shows and suggesting ways of 

 increasing their educational value. 



A poultry show primarily a competition of poultry breeders. 

 A breeder of one or many varieties of poultry may make a dis- 

 play of a number of specimens of each, but with the element of 

 competition lacking, such a display will attract much less attention 

 than a competitive exhibition containing fewer specimens and in- 

 ferior quality. The individual breeder's display may make a very 

 attractive and important feature of a show, but no matter how large 

 or how good it may be, it does not constitute a show as the term is 

 commonly understood and used. The individual breeder's display 

 represents his own judgment of his own stock, or at most the 

 judgment of an expert in his employ. In competition the relative 

 merits of the birds are decided by disinterested parties according 

 to common standards. A judge is supposed to judge the birds 

 without knowing, or, if he knows, without considering, to whom 

 they belong, but the object of competition is always to determine the 

 relative skill of breeders as shown in the quality of their products. 



Competition in live poultry necessarily in standard stock and 

 its products. Only things of the same kind can be compared. 

 Competition in living birds is on a basis of values measured mostly 

 by the eye. The table properties of a live bird are partly but not 

 fully indicated by its weight, condition, and shape, with feathers on. 

 The insufficiency of judgment for these qualities while birds are 

 living is so clear to every one that, though classes are sometimes 

 provided for live market poultry at shows, neither exhibitors nor 

 the public take much interest in them. Competition in poultry 

 products — eggs and dressed poultry — also resolves itself into a 

 competition in the products of similar varieties of poultry, because 

 differences in size and color of eggs and carcasses make it neces- 

 sary to classify them accordingly, and because continuous production 

 of eggs or poultry of a given description requires the maintenance 

 of a flock of such uniformity as can be best secured by careful 

 breeding to a particular type. While it is true that in the general 

 market handlers and consumers pay no attention to breed and 



