Vol. IX. No. 220 



THE AQRICULTUEAL NEWS. 



317 



STUDENTS' CORNER. 



READING COURSES EXAMINATIONS, 1910. 



The examinations in connexion with the Courses of 

 Reading instituted by the Imperial Department of Agriculture 

 will begin during the present year as follows: Preliminary — 

 Monday, October 10, at 9.30 a.m. (except in St. Kitts, where 

 it will be held on Monday, October 17); Intermediate and 

 Final — Monday, November 7, at 9.30 a.m. As before, the 

 Preliminary Examination will consist of a written paper and 

 an oral examination, and the Intermediate Examination will 

 include two written papers — one dealing with general subjects 

 and the other with special crop subjects — together with an 

 oral examination conducted by members of the planting com- 

 munity, who have kindly consented to give the Department 

 the necessary assistance. In both cases, the oral examination 

 will be held at such a time {or times) as is most convenient. 

 Three hours will be given for the Preliminary paper, when 

 nine questions out of thirteen that will be given may be 

 attempted. For the Intermediate paper, dealing with general 

 agricultural .science, two hours will be allowed for answering 

 eight questions, which is the greatest number that may be 

 attempted, out of a choice of twelve. 



As this is the first occasion on which there is a likelihood 

 that any candidates will offer themselves for the Final 

 Examination, it will be well to consider, at some length, the 

 scope of this, as well as the way in which the questions should 

 be viewed by the candidate, in relation to his supplying 

 answers to them. 



It is intended that the Final Examination shall consist 

 of three parts: a paper on general subjects, a paper on .sj)ecial 

 subjects, and an oral examination conducted by members of 

 the planting community; .so that it will be similar, in 

 its broad outlines, to the Intermediate Examination. It 

 will be very different, however, as regards the way in which 

 the questions are to be answered. The candidate will be 

 required to recognize thoroughly the necessity for a broad 

 treatment of the subjects with which he will have to deal, 

 with special attention to the knowledge that he has gained 

 in his practical experience. He is supposed to have learned 

 already most of the facts of agricultural science that will be 

 of use to him, during the time that he was passing through 

 the Preliminary and Intermediate stages, and the purpose of 

 the Final Examination is to find out if he is capable of 

 making practical use of these facts, as well as to gain some 

 idea of his usefulness on an estate of the kind on which 

 he has received his training. The nece.ssity for keeping 

 continually before his mind the conditions of the estate 

 practice with which he has been familiar, and for employing 

 these in illustrating his answers, is especially important when 

 he is answering the questions in the paper on general subjects. 

 The greater the extent to which he can quote examples ari.s- 

 ing from the cultivation and preparation of the crops with 

 which he has been acquainted intimately, the greater will be 

 the value of his answers. As has been indicated already, he 

 will find it of much assistance if, while providing those 

 answers, he keeps well in mind the practices and conditions 

 of the estates on which he has worked. 



In the paper to be set on special subjects, in the 

 Final Examination, the choice of these subjects will be 

 guided entirely by that which the candidate made for 

 the Intermediate Examination. That is to say, for instance, 

 a candidate who has obtained an Intermediate certificate 

 showing a satisfactory knowledge, for that stage, of cacao 

 and lime cultivation, must offer the same crop subjects 



(cacao and limes) in the Final Examination, and the same 

 circumstance applies to sugar, cotton and provision crops, 

 which must be followed by sugar, cotton and provision crops, 

 respectively, in the Final Examination. In the matter 

 of the paper itself, as the knowledge to be shown in 

 the special subjects will have to be wide and detailed, 

 a large amount of time will be given for answering the ques- 

 tions, in order that candidates may have the opportunity of 

 showing the degree of thoroughness with which they are 

 capable of dealing with them. 



It remains to be pointed out that a commencement of 

 setting specimen questions, for guidance in connexion with 

 the Final Examination, was made in the last number but one 

 of the Agrirultuml JVews (No. 218). This will be continued, 

 and the attention of candidates in the Final stage is specially 

 directed to such questions, in order that these may serve as 

 a guide to the kind of tests that they may expect, and that 

 an opportunity may be afforded of practising the writing of 

 answers to such questions according to the principles indicated 

 above. In the present issue, these are as follows: — 



( 1 ) What capital and what number of labourers do you 

 consider to be required for raising cotton on 50 acres I 



(2) Give an account of the extent to which animals are 

 useful, in relation to one important crop. 



(3) What are the general matters to be taken into con- 

 sideration in packing estate products for export? Illustrate 

 your answer by means of facts relating to a crop with which 

 you are familiar. 



USES FOR DYNAMITE IN AGRICULTURE. 



Dynamite has been pressed into the service of the agri- 

 culturist, chiefly on account of its usefulness in providing 

 a substitute for laborious and expensive digging operations. 

 The fact that it can be employed in this way is of the great- 

 est importance in countries where labour is dear, or where it 

 is imperative that ground should be prepared quickly for 

 agricultural operations. Among the more common modes of 

 employment of dynamite in this way are those which include 

 the removal of tree stumps, the foiling of trees, the blasting of 

 boulders, and the removal of hard-pan, which is the hard 

 impervious layer that forms beneath certain soils and which, 

 through preventing proper drainage, causes them to become 

 water-logged. 



The particulars as to the manner in which dynamite is 

 employed for these purposes are contained in a series of 

 pamphlets issued by the E. I. Du Pont de Nemours Pow- 

 der Co., Wilmington, Del., U.S.A. In regard to removing 

 tree stumps, the method suggested for blasting stumps of the 

 southern pine may be given as an example. The earth is 

 taken out underneath one side of the stump, until the main 

 root is found; an opening 1 foot deep is dug near this, and 

 a hole 2 inches in diameter is bored into it, at a place 1 foot 

 below the surface line, and at an angle of 3.5° to 40°. After 

 the charge has been inserted and exploded, the stump is 

 removed to about 2 feet below the surface. In a careful 

 record which was kept of work of this kind, it was found 

 that 325 stumps, averaging 28| inches in diameter, were 

 removed at a cost, including dynamite, fuse, and blasting caps 

 or electric fuses, of a little more than 18c. per stump. For 

 felling trees, the method of procedure is similar to that 

 employed for blasting stump.?. 



The blasting of large boulders is carried out by drilling 

 a hole in them from 10 to 20 inches deep, according to the^ 

 nature of the rock, and using a charge of 1 to 2 lb, of dynajj 

 ite, after tamping. The removal of hard-pan is effectejj' 

 means of charges exploded in holes drilled in it, at ui 



