The New York herald., 1922-12-10
ONE-JUDGE SYSTEM
SWEEPING THE WEST
Charles E. Bum Says 1t Is the
Only Way to Establish
Type in Show Ring.
By G. CHAPLIN.

Himself an earnest advocate Of the
one fudge system Charles E. Bum. one
Of the judges of hackneys and harness
ponies at the recent National Horse
Show, said during the exhibition that
nearly all The great live stock shows In
the West have come to this plan of maxi
ing awards. It is the only way to estab-
lish p type or maintain consistency ir
awards for any kind of animals, accord
ing to Mr. Bunn's observations, which
extend to the Judging Of hogs. cattle and
dogs as well as horses and ponies. His
principal objection to two or more
judges Is that many of their decisions
must be reached by compromise. which
precludes the possibility of consistency
in indicating to exhibitors and breeders
the FORM action and character required
to win the prizes.
Besides tending to establish types the
one judge system operates to separate
the good judges from the bad ones. Mr.
Bum declared. When two or three are
working together a judge who knows
what he wants and finds the neares, ap-
proach to 1t among the horses before him
may be outvoted by associates who do
not know or who are influenced by other
considerations than type, and unless he
makes a scene by refusing to go on with
them his judgment is recorded as being
perhaps directly the reverse of what il
really is. No one knows this, however.
and he Is charged with doing exactly the
opposite of what he might have done II
he had been alone in the ring. Any one
Of three Judges can always evade or
shift responsibility by saying he was
outvoted. while the one judge system
fixes responsibility beyond alibis, besides
UfU q ~ ho q !, ", ind
pendence and eye for beauty Of the Of
ficial expert, which soon fixes his status
among horsemen.
Formerly a prominent breeder and
exhibitor of ponies, Mr.. Bum Is now
raising Hampshire hogs. and he tells a
story about the belted breed which
illustrates the Importance of type in
judging. For years. he says, the judges
Of Hampshires have gone In for high
backs, small heads and thin jowls among
other points of conformation. Just what
was the influence of their work in es-
tablishipg type noticeably small in
head and light In jowl appeared not long
ago when Swift & Co. made q block
test for their own information of a
carload Of Hampshires and another car
load representing another well known
breed of hogs. 1t was found, Mr.. Bum
says. by weighing all the heads of each
carload lot that the difference in favor
OF the Hampshires made the high priced
cuts of this lot cost the packers IS
per cent. less than those Of the lot with
heavy 5owls and large heads. Heads
and Jowls are of course the low priced
cuts of the carcass. the high priced cuts
being the loins, hams and sides When
the packer buys hogs on the hoof he
pays the same price for heads as for
hams. but when he kills and sells there
Is vast difference in price, and it
therefore behooves him to get as little
Of the head and as much Of the ham as
possible.
There were some striking examples of
compromise decisions and mixing of
types in classes in which two or three
judges officiated at the National Horse
Show OF 1922. None, perhaps, was more
striking than the award in the cham
pionship class for saddle horses exceed
ing 1872 hands. For first prize the
judges picked the bay mare Bohemian
Actress. typical saddle bred horse of
brilliant style apd action and almost
too much weight for her inches. The
reserve ribbon went to the gray thor
oughbred, Flying Eagle, as different In
type and action as he was In color.