108 
The Australasian Book of Poultry. 
prize cards could be attached to the pens, and the Exhibition thrown open to the Public. A// Judges should 
be instructed tu w,tc their aivards hii the pen number card, in addition to the awards made in their judging 
book, which could be cherkcd as soon as handed to the Secretary. The steward in attendance on each 
Judge could, immediately the judging was finished in the class, affix the cards, the whole thing working 
smoothly — not, as is sometimes the case at some of our large Shows, exhibitors having to wait until the 
second night of the Show to ascertain who are successful. 
At the larger Shows, exhibitors should also be allowed the privilege of nominating a specialist Judge for 
their respective classes, a list of the recognised specialist Judges' names being inserted in the schedule, 
the gentleman receiving the greatest number of votes to be the elected Judge. Should the latter be an 
exhibitor his entry fees could be returned, providing he was favourable to undertaking the task. By 
this means much of the dissatisfaction now experienced would be obviated, as all exhibitors of Show or 
Fancy stock would distinctly prefer a competent Judge to an incompetent one, and it goes without saying 
that an experienced breeder of any variety would be in a much better position to discover the faults or merits 
of a breed in which he was interested than another Judge who was not constantly in touch with the efforts of 
breeders to try and produce specimens approaching the standards laid down for their guidance. There is 
ample room for improvement on the present system of electing Judges, especially at our large Winter Shows, 
and the only rational means to give entire satisfaction to practical breeders is to elect specialists to adjudicate 
on their specimens. Mistakes would, no doubt, occur, no matter what method of procedure was followed, 
but would be reduced to a minimum if the course suggested were adopted. 
^Ve would also like to see the Judges act decisively and fearlessly in cases of fraud, marking the pens 
" Disqualified* for Fraud " where in evidence. This would quickly purge the Fancy, so much so that after 
one object lesson in this public manner cases of faking and trimming would be very rare. This latter point 
especially is more or less openly practised in some of the classes, and often winked at or unnoticed by the 
Judges, the case having to be a very gross one indeed for them to take action, and frequently then is only 
brought into notice by a protest from some other exhibitor, thus causing jealousy and friction, which could 
all be avoided by the Judge acting decisively and without fear or favour, and certainly act as a preventive 
against Poultry writers ventilating their literary attainments by roundly abusing everyone connected with 
Shows or Show management. It will be understood that a Judge, to suit all, must be specially endowed 
with tact and experience ; he must be quick, agreeable, absolutely accurate, have a wonderfully retentive 
memory, unvarying judgment, possessed of the patience of Job, and, to be able to soothe the troubles of 
defeated exhibitors, he must of necessity be a phrenologist, a physiognomist, a psychologist, and hypnotizer. 
These combined qualities are not possessed by any man, and, therefore, some allowance must be made for any 
trifling mistakes likely to occur in judging Poultry. An all-round Judge is supposed or required to follow the 
standards laid down for each breed, thus having from ten to a dozen subdivisions of each bird to examine, 
each of which may be defective, and these same defects vary, so that in a large class his mind and attention 
may be brought into direct operation numberless times, so that it cannot reasonably be expected that mistakes 
will not be made, and also that it is impossible for an all-round Judge to give entire .satisfaction when judging 
a large number of birds at different times and places, making his awards agree exactly when done twice or 
more, though with judging a few birds of great merit he may possibly do so. 
Unfortunately, under existing conditions, with few exceptions, exhibiting high-class specimens of 
Poultry is more or less a lottery, some of our Judges possessing but a superficial knowledge of the breeds 
they adjudicate upon. No man living can judge all varieties of Poultry and give universal satisfaction, 
thus it now becomes absolutely necessary, if standards for the different breeds are to be of any ivortli, 
that Judges should go through an examination before a committee of practical breeders of the breed or 
breeds which the Judge professes to know, and if found efficient he should be presented with a diploma for 
each breed as a specialist Judge of that breed. This would greatly assist in purging the Fancy of a class 
of men who are only too ready to judge all varieties of Poultry and — -even elephants, if requested. 
