The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-11-24
volume, nearly every one of its 400
pages being worthy of careful perusal.
Satisfactory Judging at Fairs.


land Farmer, visited the great and sue
cessful fairof the New Hampshire State
Grange at Tilton, and after an appre-
ciative account of its general excel
lence and success, and of the entire
absence of Objectionable features, he
says: eve could find but one thing to
draw from, the officers should have Sc
lected judges entirely within their own
borders, which doubtless they will do
in future. New Hampshire cattle men
have no occasion to go outside the state
to find judges who can tell them which
are their premium animals" We do
not know of any writer on agriculture
who is so nearly always right as Mr..
Cheever, but we never knew one any
further from being right, in our judg-
ment, than he is in the above extract.
The weak spot in all our fairs is in the
judging. Perhaps none have been
quite so corruptly mismanaged in this
respect as the old "New England :"
fraud, but in every one, from the small
local exhibition to the most extensive
exposition, the complaint is generally
against the fairness, or the intelligence,
of many if not most of the awards.
We believe that this must always be so,
as long as gratuitous service in so i'm
portant a matter is expected. The men
in the world who will really do good
and faithful work without some kind of
pay are very few, and still harder to
come by. The men who generally
serve as judges at our fairs are rarely
genuine experts, and when they are so
they are frequently interested in such a
way that they cannot be entirely just,
even if they would. 1t seems quite Of
ten supposed by those who have the
making up Of committees that cattle
man is cattle man, sheep man a
sheep man, and a pig or poultry or
horse man equally capable in every
branch of his specially, as well as free
from all injurious prejudices, local
jealousies, or active rivalries. Every
one of these gratuitous supp ositions is,
as rule, false. Ever since we served,
many years ago, as Judge of Jerseys
at great fair, having as coadjutors a
Holstein " man and Shorthorn man,
and heard their bitter talk, and saw
their jealous prejudices and contempt
for the cattle we were to judge, we have
realized how futile must be any hope of
getting fair judgments in this way
Ever since, at similar fair, we made
an exhibit of fruit, all perfect, embrace
ing nearly every sort on the premium
list, and shown strictly in accordance
with the rules of the best p omologica
societies, then saw the judges go
around, exhibiting the most astonish-
ing ignorance of their duties, and
finally awarding all the first premiums
simply on the basis of greater num-
Der of alleged varieties, though mis-
named, imperfect, and otherwise in
eligible to any proper competition, we
have fully understood that the common
way of making up the so-called comit-
tees is delusion and a snare. Those
experiences of ours were by no means
exceptions in New England fairs. They
are, on the contrary, more nearly the
rule, and the judges not infrequently
smile at one another over their work,
quite in the spirit of the Roman au-
ours over their sacrifices. They know
their incompetence, and if they know
each other, they know the personal in
terests or the private preferences that
are at work to vitiate their judgments,
and nullify anything like impartial
awards. We honestly believe that, TAX
ing our fairs "by and large incompe-
tence or bias vitiate large majority of
all the awards. After the immoralities
and the absurdities have been expelled
from these fairs, this huge evil, still re-
naming, Will stand square In the way
of the much desired thorough reform
alton in everything connected with the
management of agricultural exhibitions.
What, then, is the cure? 1t is as easy
as falling off log. For seven years
continuously we have been invited, and
for six years have served, as judge at
fair in an adjoining province, which
makes it rule to secure all its judges
from among experts outside the prov
ince, and pay them. In all that time
we believe that there has never
been single complaint as to the
fairness of the awards, which were
all made before the opening of