EXAMINATIONS IN HORTICULTURE, 1911. 



207 



name is wanted. The different characteristics of different manures ; 

 their particular and specific uses ; their origin and composition ; the 

 most practical methods and best times of applying them to the soil, 

 and their relative cost, should be familiarized. 



Question 12 was set to test candidates' powers of observation, and 

 to enable them to describe the habits of tree life that come under their 

 notice every day; but the answers were disappointing — even the term 

 " habit of growth " being, in some cases, either not known or not 

 understood. Gardeners must learn the art of seeing, that is of observ- 

 ing, if they w^ou-ld be something more than mere rule-of-thumb tillers 

 of the ground. Again, some candidates confused evergreens, firs, 

 and pines with deciduous trees when they were asked to illustrate the 

 latter by common examples. 



Most of the examples in freehand drawing of sketches of flower- 

 beds were very poor in execution, and greatly lacking in fertility of 

 thought and ideas. The need for the sense of design has been fre- 

 quently urged in the reports of previous examinations. 



The arithmetic in Questions 13 and 14 was simply deplorable; 

 indeed, in the latter, no two answers agreed ! 



Candidates are strongly recommended to take the list of questions 

 set on January 16, and work them out at home with the aid of their 

 text-books, committing well to memory facts unknown to them. The 

 object of the examiners, remember, is not to find fault, but to help 

 the candidates to discover their own deficiencies and to suggest how 

 they may best supply them. 



In the viva voce questions the candidates on the whole acquitted 

 themselves very well. The questions asked are entirely confined to 

 those matters of which a knowledge is absolutely indispensable to the 

 successful working and management of public parks and town gardens. 

 They are mostly of a simple and practical character, so that any obser- 

 vant worker with a few years' experience behind him should have no 

 difficulty in answering them quite satisfactorily. The candidates were 

 particularly weak on the point of identifying trees and shrubs from 

 specimen twigs — although each specimen represented widely divergent 

 " habits of growth," and quite distinctive features assisting recog- 

 nition. 



So many gardeners having now successfully passed this Parks 

 Examination, the Secretary of the Eoyal Horticultural Society recom- 

 mends to them the higher " General Examination," which is held 

 annually in spring. Do any gardeners regret their successes in the 

 Parks Employees Examination? Has not the result to themselves, 

 mentally, intellectually, and practically, proved fully, and more than 

 fully, " v/orth the while " ? worth the time and effort devoted to secure 

 a pass — not so much as a step to promotion in wages, but rather for the 

 pleasure and happiness resulting from a better understanding of the 

 subjects of their daily care. 



Surely the answer cannot be anything but " Yes "; and, therefore, 

 they are asked not to be contented with the progress which they have 



