152 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



IV. — EXAMINATION OF SCHOOL TEACHERS IN COTTAGE 

 AND ALLOTMENT GARDENING, 



April 29, 1908. 



1. Practical Horticulture. 



Generally the questions relating to deep-soil working and leguminous 

 plants were very fairly understood, some candidates giving really 

 admirable replies. Onion cultivation on the whole was well described, 

 though many were not familiar with all the methods of raising plants in 

 order to secure large bulbs. Some candidates stumbled greatly over 

 Raspberry cultivation, referring to seeds and cuttings rather than to the 

 recognised method of propagation. Not all understood the proper charac- 

 teristics of the winter moth, or the methods adopted as preventives of 

 its attacks. Many candidates in relation to Plum-tree cultivation well 

 understood the practices of root-pruning, and of feeding the tree and 

 thinning the fruit when heavily cropped, but not the important point of 

 making the most of the crop. The treatment of an old pasture for 

 allotments found several candidates who were conversant with the 

 subject, but the replies respecting the drainage were not on the whole 

 so good. The propagation of Roses produced but few good replies, many 

 being quite wide of the mark. The questions relating to Tender Annuals 

 and to Hardy Flowers grown for sale yielded several very weak replies. 

 On the whole those of the former were better than the latter. Not many 

 attempted the last question relating to flowers for exhibition, nor were 

 the methods of staging at all well described. 



Taken as a whole the Examiners consider that there is a marked 

 improvement in the genera] knowledge of the candidates, and in their 

 fitness for teaching the elementary principles of cottage and allotment 

 gardening. This knowledge when imparted to the scholars in the schools 

 and to those who have either gardens or allotments under their care must 

 be productive of good results in the near future. It will be well for 

 future candidates to rely more upon their own close observation in relation 

 to cultivation rather than to knowledge obtained only from books. 



James Hudson, V.M.H. 

 Alexander Dean, V.M.H. 



2. Elementary Science. 



Optional questions of an elementary character on certain scientific 

 points were set at this examination [such questions will be compulsory 

 in future examinations], and the majority of the candidates attempted 

 answer- to one or more of them. The answers to the question concern- 

 in- respiration in plants show that this important process is very little 

 understood by the majority of the candidates. Accounts were usually 

 '-' m H ot transpiration and assimilation (photosynthesis), respiration 



