Re: Cucurbits, pumpkins, squash, squmpkins--AHHH!

  Stirring the pot even more... No one has mentioned the
dirty subject of fraud as far as color. As the prize money
grows in these contests, the urge to "touch up" too much
green to turn a "squash" into a "pumpkin" may be already
going on. I don't know how this could be done, but I'm sure
more devious minds than mine could find a way.
  Langevin exposes weight fraud in his first book. Any
person who would spike a pumpkin to raise weight wouldn't
hesetate to get out the magic marker and go to work.
  When I was involved in showing poultry I saw many times a
competitor would pluck an off color feather that would
either disqualify a bird, or cause it to lose points. The
usual comment ran along the lines of "Oh, it just moulted".
The prizes in these shows was always much smaller than
weigh offs, sometimes just a ribbon or trophy. 
  I like big orange pumpkins too, but at my first weigh off
this fall I saw many pumpkins that were out and out yellow,
not to me a pumpkin color any more than green is. If we use
color as a qualifier, then why is shape ignored? Aren't
pumpkins also supposed to be round? 
  I generally don't like competative events where judging
comes in. My wife likes skating, but I hate that the last
skaters get better numbers than the ones who skate earlier.
It's a poor system in my opinion but I can't think of a
better one. Maybe the idea of a method of measuring the
amount of green, and a color comparison chart could be
worked out. In poultry judging the color, feathering, shape
etc. were spelled out in a standard, and the judge was
tested thouroughly before he was issued his license. As
long as color is a qualifier to admision to a weigh off,
then some sort of standard, with licensed judges would not
be out of line. 
  After having said all that, I think that the current
rules are workable, and AGs of whatever color or shape are
still impressive. I will also abide by the spirit of fair
play in all this, and I hope others will do the same.



=====
Good fishing!
Matt Moore
Visit my Severum Page at:
http://www.virtualseeds.com/matt.html


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