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Prizes to Engine-Drivers. 
From tlie certificate, the length of service of the competitor 
and his general conduct can be ascertained. There remain, 
1st, his special competence as an engine driver to be tested ; 
and 2ndly, his care of his engine to be proved bj inspection, 
due allowance being made for its original cost, its age, and wear 
and tear. 
To arrive at a satisfactory conclusion as to the merits of the 
candidates on these two points, it was determined that some 
engineer of experience should be found to act as Examiner and 
Inspector, and that after his examination and inspection he 
should give in his report to the Committee : who then, con- 
sidering it in connexion with the respective certificates of service 
and general conduct, would be enabled to award the prizes. 
These were the conditions of the first competition in 1864, 
and no alteration has been made in them since. 
The examination of the engine drivers is carried on in the 
following manner. On the appointed day the competitors 
having been duly entered and furnished with certificates by 
their employers, appear in the yard at the back of the manu- 
factory of Messrs. Amies and Barford. Here are standing ready 
two agricultural steam engines, one in good working order, the 
other out of repair. The men are drawn up at the end of the 
yard, and the Examiner having summoned them one by one at a 
time to wheie the engines are standing, examines them in any 
way which seems to him best calculated to test their com- 
petency. 
Of course very considerable tact and judgment is necessary on 
the part of the Inspector, a viva voce examination being an 
ordeal, under which a rustic labourer — and many drivers of 
agricultural steam engines are only ordinary labourers — would 
be peculiarly liable to break down. A few simple questions 
are put to them, they are perhaps asked to show their power in 
stoking, or inquiries are made as to what they would do under 
certain hypothetical emergencies, or again, they may be begged 
to point out what is wrong, and how they would remedy the 
wrong, in the engine out of repair. In the end, by marks or 
otherwise, the Examiner arrives at a conclusion — necessarily 
rather roughly formed — as to the order of merit in which the men 
have proved their acquaintance with the art of engine driving. 
Previous, however, to the day of competition, the inspection 
of the engines at their respective homes has taken place by the 
examining engineer, who, choosing his own time, and giving 
no notice of his coming, visits in turn all those engines of which 
the drivers have been entered as competitors. 
Here again much judgment must be exercised, and in appor- 
tioning credit to the men for the state their respective engines 
