330 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN HORTICULTURE. 



The first Final Examination of Professional Gardeners for the National 

 Diploma in Horticulture, established by the Society with the sanction 

 and co-operation of the Board of Agriculture, took place in June and 

 July 1915. Twenty-two candidates who had qualified by passing the 

 Preliminary Examination last year sat for the Final Examination, viz. 

 fourteen in Section I (General Horticulture), of whom eleven passed; 

 two in Section Ic (Fruit-growing for market), both of whom passed; 

 two in Section II (Hardy Fruit-growing for market), who both 

 passed ; one in Section III/ (Market gardening in the open), who 

 passed; three in Section VII (Horticultural Inspection), of whom one 

 passed ; one in Section VIII (Horticultural Instruction), who failed 

 to satisfy the Examiners. 



The second Preliminary Examination was held in June, twenty-one 

 candidates presenting themselves, of whom ten passed. 



Both examinations consist partly of written papers and partly of 

 practical work in the garden and verbal questioning by the Examiners. 

 The practical work in the case of the Preliminary occupies one day, 

 and of the Final two days, the work being done in the presence of 

 the Examiners. This year all the candidates were brought to Wisley 

 in order that the conditions under which the work was done should 

 be as nearly equal as possible. 



The Examiners report that on the whole the written answers and 

 much of the practical work were satisfactory, but in several cases 

 candidates failed to satisfy them in the tests of craftsmanship and 

 in their knowledge of garden plants. Perhaps the greatest faults 

 were observable in the exercises in pruning, but the work of several 

 candidates in the Preliminary Examination lacked finish, and in some 

 cases there was evident lack of general elementary horticultural 

 knowledge. 



The Preliminary Examination is essentially an examination 

 designed to test the general horticultural knowledge of the candidates, 

 while the Final is a more searching and thorough examination in 

 the special branches which the candidate himself chooses, as is set 

 out in the Syllabus. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the 

 central part of the test is the practical work in the Garden, and that 

 no candidate who fails to satisfy the Examiners in this part of the 

 test can under any circumstances pass, no matter how good so ever 

 his written papers may be. 



Those candidates who succeed in satisfying the Examiners, 

 especially in the Final Examination, may be congratulated on having 

 come triumphantly through a really stiff ordeal, and on having proved 

 themselves worthy to receive the high mark of distinction which the 



