The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1905-02-25
Fareical judging Of fruit.

Ss.l4ss2X<1e-19lNV
FarcieaI Judging of Fruit. i
sFhe writer attended the Illinois
state lair last week, and while there
made, a cursory examination OF the
trait In the horticultural exhibit. The
premiums had been already awarded,
ana some of the results were start
ing The judge that awarded the pre-
mmms for Bartlett pears had placed
the blue ribbon, which indicates first,
on a plate of Keihers. The Keiners
700 mad none Of the appearance of
bar'tletts BAIT but were typical Keiners. A
'psate p'sa OF Rome beauty took first prize
as York Iperial, though the Rome
beauty was typically Rome Beauty and
tAe York Imperials shown were typi-
cM York Imperials.
What inducement is there for fruit
men to show fruit if the judges Sc
laeted are men almost ignorant of
the things they are supposed to judge.
lesWould be far better to hire experts
az almost any price than to have such
results. Of the three judges chosen
Only one, so far as the writer knows,
Isl an expert ON fruit. If all three
judged the same fruits the results
might not be so bad; but each one
was given a certain amount of the
tFalt to judge and made supreme so
far as that fruit was concerned. The
expert used the better part of two
Gays IN arriving at his decisions,
while the other men made their
awards in a few hours.
gfhe expert related to the writer the
manner in which he was selected. The
member of the Illinois State Board of
Agriculture that had charge of the
Ilult exhibit wrote to lawyer in the
city and asked him to select a Judge
fT the fruit. The lawyer chose the
mutt man mentioned. It is probable
that the same unscientific method was
used in the selection of the other
judges. 1t is surprising that they
got even one good man out of three.
Such inefic1ency iQ the manage
ment of the horticultural exhibition
cannot be too severely condemned.
of dollars in equipping state fair
as an eddcafiona1 inst ftGtfon ana
then the management is turned over
to men entirely incapable of manag-
ing it in a way to make the educa-
tional feature Of any value. The ILL.,
nois State Board of Agriculture has
the names of numerous fruit growers
in this state any one of which knows
enough about apples and other fruit
to. at least recognize the varieties.
Why are they not appointed as judges?
The trouble with the Illinois State
Board of Agriculture seems to be that
a man is appointed as Superintendent
of department and then allowed a
free hand to work his own sweet will.
No matter how little he knows about
it, he is not interfered with, and it
would be considered discourteous to
even make suggestions to him. The
power OF the man is supreme over all
the exhibitors. His opinion is accept
ed and must be accepted against the
opinions of men that know a hundred
times more about the exhibit than
he does.
In the selection of judges for the
fruit there is no reason why the State
Board of Agriculture should not ask
the advice of the State Horticultural
Society. When the International Live
Stock Exposition and the Worlds Fair
managers wanted live stock Judges
they wrote to the different live stock
associations and asked them to name
a number of men who were able to
Judge in their breeds. Out of these
the managers of the two great shows
made their selection of judges and SO
got men well equipped for judging.
There is no reason why State Board
of Agriculture should not ask the
State Horticultural Society to name
men capable of judging the different
kinds Of fruit. It would be far better
than writing to a local lawyer and
requesting that he pick out a man to
act as judge on fruit exhibit.-Far-
mpr'S Rauiou