134 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



blooms been so high as it is now. And not only so, but there is 

 a marked approach to equality in the products of the best exhi- 

 bitors. This compels judges to exercise the greatest discrimina- 

 tion and adopt the best methods known to them in placing the 

 competing stands in their right positions. Judging in great 

 mixed classes in which trophies and prizes of a value not dreamt 

 about half a generation ago, with the floral world waiting for 

 the issues, is no light task. The work appears easy enough 

 when it is done, and it is certainly easy enough to find fault 

 with, but it taxes the resources of most men who have to do it 

 in keen competition. 



Judging by guesswork will not do nowadays in large close 

 contests. A few years ago I heard a famous gardener proclaiming 

 loudly against recording "points of merit." Intuition, he said, 

 would always lead able men to a right conclusion after a general 

 survey. I lived long enough to see that same man completely 

 bewildered in a large class, and never saw anyone so ready to be 

 extricated, as he undoubtedly was extricated, by the plan he 

 condemned before he understood it. No judges would be so 

 foolish as to waste time in recording the value of blooms in 

 figures if the distinctions in the merits of collections could, as is 

 the case with the majority, be perceived by a general broad 

 comparison. 



But there must be no jumping at conclusions. Nothing is 

 so humiliating or so damaging to the reputation of an adjudicator 

 as to see his verdict proved wrong by figures that he cannot dis- 

 prove. Unless the differences in value are obvious to every judge, 

 pointing should be resorted to. Let me give an instance of its 

 necessity. In one of the most important of contests the loser 

 and a few of his friends were taken by surprise. He entered a 

 protest on the ground that the judging had not been done 

 by points, and assuredly if these had not been produced, the 

 whole work must have been done over again in a surging 

 crowd. It is, of course, open for anyone to say, " You may 

 be wrong in your points, and other judges would find a dif- 

 ferent total." True ; but if a man know the varieties and the 

 value of the blooms, there is no other way by which possible errors 

 can be so well prevented. In the case in question three sets of 

 judges pointed the blooms independently, with the result that 

 out of a possible 576 points in the collections, there was only a 



