398 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
movement. On the other hand, the free trade 
party in England contend that England, under 
no circumstances, can change her protective 
policy, and more especially on food products. 
That any such change as that which has been 
suggested, would press so heavily upon the 
laboring classes as to cause a revolution. 
-- 
Unbiased Judging at Fairs. 
BT MASON C. IVELD. 
The selection of Judges to serve at Agricul¬ 
tural Fairs, securing their attendance and get¬ 
ting them at work, must be one of the most 
perplexing and thankless tasks which fall to 
the lot of the Secretary of an Agricultural So¬ 
ciety. Exhibitors are impatient; there is a 
great amount of work to do ; the gentlemen 
who have been invited to act as judges do 
not put in an appearance, and the various 
classes must be judged. Thus there is a lia¬ 
bility to appoint poor judges and those pre¬ 
disposed in favor of certain exhibitors. I 
have often been called upon to act in judging 
classes of animals or goods about which I was 
sufficiently informed to know that I was a 
very unfit person to pass judgment upon 
them. I have never acted in such a case, or, 
or least, when I thought I was especially 
unfit, and yet, though I have frequently 
served acceptably, and think, perhaps, have 
done as justly as any one would, have never 
served without a feeling of distrust of my 
own judgment at the first, which is almost 
painful. I must say, however, that after a 
hard day’s work in the rings, I have often 
closed the book with a feeling of satisfaction 
that I, for one, entertained no doubts as to 
the fairness of the awards. 
Very few persons understand what a diffi¬ 
culty matter it is to judge fairly. Often it 
has happened that associates would not de¬ 
clare their views until they had ascertained 
to whom the various animals belonged, and, 
if possible, what prizes they had taken before, 
or what they were considered worth, doubt¬ 
less basing their judgment upon all these par¬ 
ticulars, and especially upon the first. This 
awarding of prizes to the owner and not to 
the animal, is not so prevalent as formerly, 
except in little county and district societies. 
At these, it frequently happens that the presi¬ 
dent or secretary comes to induce the judges 
to modify then’ awards, so as to distribute 
the little prizes about among influential peo¬ 
ple, and if the judges do not do it, their 
awards are modified before publication or 
announcement. To many persons with whom 
I have been associated as judges, it seems 
the hight of unfairness to award 1st, 2d, and 
3d prizes in the same class to the stock of the 
same breeder, when there is any considerable 
competition. In vain I have pleaded that 
we were awarding the prizes to the animals 
and not to the men, and was not supposed to 
know to whom they belonged. It made no 
difference, and a fair-minded judge who knew 
what he was about, would be obliged to “raise 
a breeze ” or submit to be party to the injus¬ 
tice. There is no place like a show ground 
to study human nature, and I must say that 
equine, bovine, ovine, and even porcine- 
natures shine in comparison. Do you notice 
that shrewd, foxy-looking man, clad in a 
half-farmer, half poor-gentleman style? He 
is a farmer in a small way, breeds some cattle 
and buys more, is always trading and always 
shows a lot of fairish things at shows, not too 
far from home. He is generally, accidentally, 
within earshot of the judges, or those whom 
he supposes to be judges, and his remarks 
laudatory of his own beasts and disparaging 
those in competition, are quite amusing. I 
have known the man whom I have in mind, 
to depreciate in every way an animal which 
he afterwards bought, and when shown again 
in his own herd—nothing was equal to her, 
according to his say. Others resort to mis¬ 
representation as to time of calving, amount 
and quality of milk, offers of purchase re¬ 
fused, and all that sort of thing, and many an 
upright man acting as judge, but a little be¬ 
yond his depth, and glad to have some firm 
foundation for faith of some sort is deceived 
and is greatly prepossessed in favor of such 
wonderful stock. Other exhibitors, or the same 
ones perhaps, use scissors, and unguents, and 
artificial coloring to improve the hair, the 
hide, and the color of the skin and horns. 
Now, I believe in thorough grooming and 
in good feeding, in order to put animals, es¬ 
pecially neat stock, in the best possible show 
order—not fat, but in fair flesh, when not in 
full milk, with soft hides and glossy coats, 
out think that that kind of jockeying, which 
I allude to, should exclude an animal, other¬ 
wise worthy, from any consideration what¬ 
ever. In such cases I would give the award 
to the owner and not to the animal. 
I have never investigated methods of col¬ 
oring the skin, ears, and horns, but have 
often seen cases where it was most bunglingly 
done. The horns seem difficult to color, the 
dye or coloring matter rubs off so easily. It 
occurred to me years ago, that a cow’s horn 
might be stained by nitric acid {aqua fortis), 
just as it colors the finger nails and skin of 
the hands of those who handle it, or come in 
contact with the strong fumes, but until re¬ 
cently I have never suspected its being done. 
A friend of mine bought an heifer of one of 
those doctors, breeders, successful exhibitors, 
and great “ blowers,” who are fitly classed as 
“ cow-jockeys.” The horns were especially yel¬ 
low, and naturally so to all appearance. The 
color was surely part and parcel of the outer 
shell of the horn itself, and the texture of the 
horn gave no indication that it was corroded 
by acid or other active “ chemical.” After a 
few weeks the horn began to Scale and crum¬ 
ble on the outside, and the action of natural 
causes have now denuded it of this yellow 
surface, and the horn has entirely lost this 
very attractive tint. It seems to me that 
some of our agricultural chemists may sug¬ 
gest a test which may be applied to horns 
colored in this way. How delightful it 
would be, for instance, to be able to sponge 
over a dyed horn with some solution which 
would leave a natural surface unaffected and 
turn the stain to a bright blue. It would be 
a pleasant way of calling attention to the skill 
of the exhibitor in the art and mystery of 
dyeing horns, for the judges to be able thus 
to bring out a fine scarlet or blue tint upon 
one horn and leave the other as a sample of 
the exhibitor’s handiwork. 
How Ought Cattle to be Shown? 
In my opinion, they should be brought up 
from the pasture several weeks before the 
show, put into sheltered yards or boxes, but 
not stalled over night, given food according 
to their condition, but some food certainly. 
They should be well groomed with card and 
brush once a day, and if the hide is not mel¬ 
low and the coat is harsh, the more it is 
brushed the better, i I would use no oil but 
“ elbow-grease,” and plenty of that. This gets 
the hide in perfect order—healthy, in condi¬ 
tion to discharge its functions, and so of 
course mellow, soft, and elastic to the touch. 
Show cattle should be kept out of the rain, 
for this washes the color out of the skin and 
makes the coat harsh. Blanketing, or sheet¬ 
ing, favors the formation of the oily, soapy 
secretion which produces the effects of soft¬ 
ness and color, which we seek in the skins of 
the Channel Island cattle and in some other 
breeds. It also prevents flies from biting, 
and their bites not only worry a beast, but 
render the skin rough, hard, and lumpy. If, 
however, an animal is blanketed a few days 
before the show, it is usually enough. As to 
feed, two or three quarts of corn meal, 
corn and oat meal, or corn meal and oil¬ 
cake a day, will bring young stock into 
show order within a month or six weeks. 
Older animals should have more in propor¬ 
tion, but all should have grass, as this gives a 
better color to the skin, ears, and udder, than 
any other food. That extravagant care, 
which sand-papers the horns and hoofs, and 
combs out the tails until they look like great 
silky tassels, is not to my taste. It should 
work no disqualification, however, like color¬ 
ing, clipping, etc. It is certainly fair to put 
animals in their healthiest and best condition, 
and to present them clean and well fed. 
Some exhibitors have nothing to say, and 
are studiously not present—others consider it 
exceedingly important to inform the judges 
that their cattle are just taken out of pasture, 
have not been under cover since April, nor 
had a spoonful of meal, nor a brush laid 
upon them until they came within the show 
grounds. If these statements are not true— 
the more shame to the farmer. If they are 
true, no allowance can be made in favor of 
the cattle. It is not easy to guess how they 
might look and handle if they had been prop¬ 
erly cared for, and it would be pretty much 
all guesswork any way. Judges have to take 
the animals as they find them, judge them ac¬ 
cording to their individual merits, not accord¬ 
ing to their money value, or according to the 
value of their pedigrees, and assuredly not ac¬ 
cording to the talk of their owners, or their 
men, or anybody else, and to judge the 
animals and not award the prizes with the 
least reference as to who owns the cattle, or 
to the even distribution of the prizes among 
the patrons of the society. 
The fairest way of judging is to “scale” 
the animals. That is to take cards marked 
with the approved scale of points, and mark 
each point according to the scale. The points 
should be numbered, so that perfection is in¬ 
dicated by 100, and then as the sum total of 
points approaches this, the relative excellence 
of the animals is very fairly indicated. It is a 
great art to “scale” rapidly, and judges un¬ 
accustomed to it, are so slow about it, that 
this method of judging can rarely be used. 
It is constantly employed by judges at poultry 
shows, giving great satisfaction, and I am in¬ 
clined to think that it is the only perfectly 
fair way of judging cattle of any kind. 
Clean tlse Utarn-yartls. —At this sea¬ 
son all the manure should be removed from the 
barn-yards. After the bulk is removed, the 
yard should be thoroughly scraped, as this is 
the finest and most .valuable of all. In 
drawing out mauure, it is economy to use 
two wagons and one team. A good-sized boy 
can do the driving, and a man or two men 
will perform the loading of the wagons. 
