December 8 188T. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTaGE GARDENER. 
485 
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COMING EVENTS 
8 
*9 
Th 
F 
The Natio -al Rose Sosiatya Annual Meeting and Dinner. 
>0 
11 
12 
11 
14 
s 
SUN 
M 
To 
W 
Srd Sunday in Advent. 
Rojal Horticultural Society—Committees at 11 a.m. 
[ of Fellows. 
Special Meeting 
•eating 
THE SCIENCE OF CHRYSANTHEMUM JUDGING. 
|H|S|'S Science has been authoritatively described 
as “ knowledge grounded on demonstration 
and self-evident principles capable of being 
reduced to practice,” the method that will 
be described of judging blooms of Chrysan¬ 
themums when placed in competition may 
fairly claim to come within the definition. 
The term, however, is mainly employed as indi- 
_ a sharp distinction between the looser plan of 
judging by guesswork. Mr. Lewis Castle, who knows 
Chrysanthemums and howto judge them, referred approv- 
ingly in his notes on page 471 last week to my method of 
recording the merits ofblooms in competing stands. That 
system is published in Mr. Molyneux’s book, and has, I 
know, been described as fanciful and complex. To that I 
have not the slightest objection, as it is only in accord¬ 
ance with custom to so regard anything as an inno¬ 
vation, or what is a departure from time-honoured 
•customs. It is well that this should be so, or we might 
be inundated with plans and schemes having little more 
than mere novelty to recommend them. Experience alone 
can prove the value or defects of new methods, and though 
I did not lightly, nor without many trials of its working, 
advance the plan of expressing the merits of blooms in 
two denominators instead of one where “ point” judging 
is resorted to, I am now fortified by the experience of 
others during the late campaign that the plan, instead of 
being fanciful, is severely practical, and so far from being 
complex its simplicity becomes apparent in a moment to 
persons who have not previously seen it carried out. 
There are a few persons who judge Chrysanthemums 
■occasionally that feel quite competent to determine the 
awards in close competition without having recourse to 
pointing,” or examining the blooms individually and 
recording the merits of each by a figure or figures. Such 
individuals are extraordinarily good guessers if they can 
decide accurately when three or four stands of forty-eight 
blooms are arranged, half of each being incurved and 
the other Japanese, and one kind taking the lead in one 
stand and the opposite kind in another. I have acted 
■with the majority of good judges from time to time, and 
am bound to say I have not found one who could have 
arrived at a true decision in a Sheffield class, for instance, 
in which Mr. Mease and Mr. Midgley staged so closely. 
There was no difficulty in guessing that Mr. Mease had 
the best incurved blooms and Mr. Midgley the best 
Japanese, but I cannot conceive it possible that the rela¬ 
tive value of the whole could be determined except by the 
most careful enumeration of the merits of the forty-eight 
blooms in the two stands. A decision could have been 
arrived at without the so-called “ trouble ” of pointing, 
No. 389. —Yol. XV., Third Series. 
but it would have been just as likely to have been wrong 
as right. Here is the result:— 
Mr. Mease. I Mr. Midgley. 
unred. 103+8 I icu'ved. 102 + 3 
J.pmtse. 110 + 9 | J p njae. 114 + 1 -.jj 
219 | 0 | 219 | 6 
Thus, Mr. Mease won by 2.6, or points only out of a 
possible 288—six points being taken as the standard of a 
perfect bloom. As will be seen, he gained six points by 
his incurved and lost 3^ by his Japanese, and the differ¬ 
ence between the gain and the loss represents the small 
majority named. The stands were examined by many 
good Chrysanthemum growers before the awards were 
made, and no agreement could be arrived at as to which 
was the better, but after the verdict was given as the 
result of such close scrutiny no one questioned its accu¬ 
racy. There was a general impression perhaps that Mr. 
Parker’s blooms would win the first position, and they did, 
but opinions were about equally divided as regards the 
others, as well they might, and the best of guessers could 
not have given a verdict the accuracy of which could be 
demonstrated, and hence meet with general acceptance. 
The difficulty is often greater in adjudging the second 
and third prizes than determining the first; but obviously 
the same care is needed in awarding the third as the first, 
or justice would not be done to all the competitors. 
There was closer running between two similar stands 
at Liverpool, and it was closer still between two stands of 
incurved blooms at Putney, only 03, or \ of a point 
dividing them. If anyone should say or think that this 
is drawing the line too fine my reply is, If I owe the 
objector 3d. he is as much entitled to it as he would be 
to Is. if that were the amount due. Book-keeping is 
reduced to a science because of the accuracy that is 
essential, and it would be clumsy work if no account were 
taken of the pence column in the ledger, or if no such 
column were prepared; and this brings me to the method 
of judging Chrysanthemum blooms that is so simple in 
action, while it is the most certain I have found in 
extremely close competition. 
For the purpose of enabling it to be understood at a 
glance and carried out easily by anyone who has a know¬ 
ledge of the different varieties, their character and capa¬ 
cities, it is worked on the shillings and pence system, 
“ points ” being entered in the shilling column and the 
margins of merit between them in the column for pence. 
A point is divided into parts, representing J, or f of 
the whole, and entered as 3d., Gd., and 9d. respectively. 
It would be easy to still further subdivide, but more 
minute divisions as representing the merits of blooms 
would not be so readily determinable. The desiderata 
are accuracy with simplicity, and these are provided, as 
may be seen by an illustrative case. Let us take the 
back row of blooms in a stand of twenty-four incurved 
varieties—Mr. Parker’s at Sheffield—and show their 
value : — 
1 Lord Alcester .... 
2 Jeanne d’Arc . 
3 Lord Alcester . 
4 Queen of England 
5 Empress of India 
6 Queen of England 
7 Empress of India 
8 John Salter. 
40 | 3 
In adding up the pence column we have a total of thirty- 
nine, or 3s. 3d.; the 3d. is put down and the 3s. added 
No. 2045.— Yol. LXXVII., Old Series. 
