EXAMINATIONS IN HORTICULTURE. 



149 



111.— JUNIORS* EXAMINATION, 

 Specially intended for Lads and Young Men, 

 Wednesday, March 25, 1908. 



The first Annual Examination for lads and young men was held on 

 March 25, 1908, and conducted on similar lines to the General Exam- 

 ination. 



Ninety-five candidates were entered for the examination, of whom four 

 have been placed in the first class, twenty-two in the second class, and 

 forty-seven in the third. Twenty-two failed to obtain sufficient marks to 

 satisfy the examiners. 



Speaking generally, we regret to say that the standard reached by 

 the candidates was on the whole a very low one. Quite elementary 

 questions are set at this examination, but it should be clearly under- 

 stood by the candidates that a thorough knowledge of elementary facts is 

 expected. In many cases it was only too evident that the candidates were 

 insufficiently prepared for the examination, both in the way of having 

 minds too little stored with the necessary elementary knowledge, and 

 also in the power of expressing what they knew upon paper. In other 

 cases an attempt at preparation had been made, by learning by rote 

 an account of certain processes, with the object of reproducing the 

 account verbatim. The usual result followed this course, for where it 

 had been adopted a great lack of intelligence was evident in the answers 

 given, and since the question set was not exactly like the question to 

 which the account, perhaps somewhat imperfectly committed to memory, 

 applied, the answer often failed really to fit the question at all. Attempts 

 at memorising answers in this way only lead to the stifling of all intelli- 

 gent interest in the operations the candidate is called upon to perform in 

 the garden, and to the perpetuation of those rule-of-thumb methods 

 which block all progress and, in altered circumstances, too often lead to 

 disaster. 



Another fault which calls for special mention is the failure on the part 

 of many of the candidates to grasp the actual meaning of the question they 

 were answering. Not one single question escaped this misunderstanding, 

 although great care had been taken to make them very plain. Candidates 

 should always very carefully read the question before attempting to 

 answer it, so as to realise exactly what is asked. 



Again, attention to every little detail is imperatively called for in the 

 cultivation of every plant if success is to be deserved, and success cannot 

 be attained in any branch of gardening without this attention, yet in 

 almost every paper the evidence of lack of attention to detail was very 

 plainly to be seen. 



Few candidates appeared to thoroughly appreciate the benefits of 

 hoeing, and fewer still were aware of the action of lime on a heavy clay 

 soil. The word " flower " was often, of course incorrectly, taken to mean 



