Part 5

Now, every man is not fitted to become a good judge of poultry, even if he go through the regular process, any more than every one can become an exact musician by undergoing the necessary course of training. There is an inborn something that distinguishes one person from another and certain it is that ideas of form, grace and coloring, above the ordinary, are to be found in the composition of our best judges.

The question is often asked by officers of agricultural and horticultural fairs, as well as by those of poultry exhibitions, if it is not possible to have awards made without producing the hard feelings and unsatisfactory results generally following. And we answer, “No!”—as long as no more pains are taken in the selection of judges on the score of their particular fitness for the position they are called upon to fill. On their efficiency turn the questions of success, harmony, and the keeping and securing of the public confidence and patronage.

We hope we have not been too severe upon judges in this chapter. A really good judge will see the force of our arguments, and in the case of the indifferent ones, we trust _verbum sapientibus omnes est_.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of the Hamburgs, by L. Frank Baum