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TEE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



Judging mt Shows, 



THE following papers were submitted at 

 the Conference of Pastoral and Agri- 

 cultural Societies' Union of New South 

 Wales 



Mr. W. Muggeridge writes :— The prin- 

 ciple upon which agricultural shows were 

 founded aimed directly at the education 

 of the producer. This principle is gener- 

 ally acknowledged, yet it has not been re- 

 spected to an extent calculated to give the 

 amount of benefit that was primarily in- 

 tended. There has been no uniform sys- 

 tem of schedule arrangement in legard to 

 conditions ; neither has the matter of 

 judging to give educational results been 

 accorded practical consideration. And it 

 is of methods of judging I would speak. 



Not being competent to deal with any- 

 thing but the horse section I must con- 

 fine my remarks to that department ; but, 

 they may, nevertheless in a measure be 

 accepted as applying to show jadgimg 

 generally. The value cf the agricultural 

 show in advertising a district cannot be 

 over - estimated, and where this is 

 nourished as the main object the matter 

 of educating the producer is oft times 

 vei'y much neglected. It may happen 

 that in their desire to obtain big entries, 

 and the consequent popularity, a show 

 committee turns its back upon any sug- 

 gested reform that may threaten a reduc- 

 tion of entries. For instance, in the 

 horse section, if it were stipulated that no 

 animal possessing an hereditary unsound- 

 ness should be eligible for decoration, the 

 enti'ies would, as a necessity, be much 

 fewer than were no condition of the kind 

 inserted in the scheHuIe. With all due 

 respect to the di'auglit classes, it cannot 

 be denied that we have mainly to rely 

 ujion the thoroughbred for the support of 

 (uir horse-breeding industry. Of late 

 years our light horses have shown deplor- 

 able bone deterioiation, and few will 

 opi)ose ihe assumption that our big racing 

 iiis'titutions, by catei'ing for the produc- 

 tion of short distance llyers of the feather 

 carrying pattern, have been almost en- 

 tirely responsible for the growth of weak 

 legs and light bone in our thoroughbreds. 

 There is, however, another evil which, 

 although greatly contributed to by this 



weakness of bone, is yet open to a mea 

 sure of correction by show societies— that 

 is unsoundness. If the schedule framers 

 stoutly insisted that no horse possessing 

 hereditary unsounduess should _ be 

 awarded a prize, breeders would quickly 

 assist by ousting from their studs animals 

 that were calculated to produce any of 

 the scheduled infifmi ties— that is the un. 

 soundness which may be set down by an 

 expert committee appointed by the Pas- 

 toral and Agricultural Societies' Union, 

 In this connection it would be wise, per- 

 haps, to have such a committee composed 

 of qualified veterinary surgeons. A gener- 

 ally admitted ditficuliy is to procure com- 

 petent judges, and were this great concern 

 of the horse-breeding industry properly 

 embraced by show societies it might even 

 be necessary to subject judges to an ex- 

 amination as regards these hereditary 

 unsoundnesses. I may be pardoned for 

 traversing so much ground when deahng 

 with the subject of judging, but I am 

 eager to have discussed anything that niay 

 serve to advance the horse-breeding in- 

 dustry. Horse exhibits are incontesiably 

 the mam feature of the show ring from a 

 public point of view, and a retrospect of 

 transactions in military horse-buying in 

 this State during the past two years 

 arouses great expectancy in regard to our 

 future over-sea trade in horse-flesh. 

 Leaving the war demand altogether out of 

 the question, prices in the world's mar- 

 kets for horses of the right stamp offer 

 great inducement for the production of 

 export horses. New South Wales possess 

 facilities unapproached by the favours be- 

 stowed by Nature on any other country 

 in the world, and. as with our wool, we 

 sh uld he able to hold pride of place in 

 horse production. 



The influence of show judging on our 

 industry in the past is difficult of estima- 

 tion ; yet, with such matters as the 

 breeder may control, kept steadily in view 

 by schedule committees in the future, the 

 amount of benefit that would follow is 

 easy to anticipate. The main thing, ol 

 course, is to educate the breeder ; there- 

 fore it is absolutely necessary that judges 

 should be prepared to give explicit 



