340 National Aaricultural Examination Board. 
holder of a National Diploma should have some acquaintance with the outlines of the 
more important types of farming in other parts of the country, and in this respect 
several candidates were manifestly deficient. 
The Examiners regret to find that many candidates were practically ignorant of 
the main results obtained in the long-continued manurial treatment of the meadow at 
Itothamsted, and they cannot help thinking that the teaching at Agricultural 
Colleges should take account ot' the more important work carried out at the leading 
experimental stations. 
Too often candidates were disposed to attribute most, if not all, of the benefits of 
basic slag to the free lime that it contains ; while lack of knowledge of the value of the 
manurial constituents of leading foods was also not infrequently manifested. These 
are subjects that might with advantage receive more attention in the teaching. 
Mensuration and Land Surveying. Mr. R. E. C. Burder, P.A.S.I. 
Old Regulations, 200 Marks. 
Only three papers were submitted in this subject. They were all well done, and do 
not call for any special comment. 
Farm and Estate Engineering. Mr. R. E. C. Burder, P.A.S.I. 
(Surveying and Farm Buildings) ; Professor R. Stanfield, M.Inst.C.E. 
(Machinery and Implements). 
New Regulations, 300 Marks. 
Agricultural Engineering. Professor Stanfield. 
Old Regulations, 200 Marks. 
Purveying and Firm Buildings : — There was this year, I consider, a general improve- 
ment in the papers. In the Surveying section, the plans were, in nearly all cases, 
correctly drawn. More time might well have been devoted, however, to the study of 
the Ordnance Maps, as in several cases the candidates were unable to say correctly to 
what scale a map had been drawn, and, in others, appeared very uncertain about it. 
In the Buildings section, a good knowledge was displayed of the proper dimensions 
to be adopted in the construction of a Cow Byre, and the candidates also seemed to 
appreciate the chief points which should be attended to in the formation of the floors 
and gutters. The answers given to the question on fencing showed a very fair 
acquaintance with the subject. 
Machinery and Implements, and Agricultural Engineering. — The questions set in 
these two papers were sufficiently varied to enable me to obtain an idea as to the 
character of the candidates’ training and experience. 
Fifteen candidates presented themselves for examination in Agricultural Engineer- 
ing (Old Regulations), and fifty-two attempted the paper in Machinery and Implements 
(New Regulations.) 
The questions were answered very satisfactorily on the whole, but it is evident that 
very little practical instruction is given to the candidates in the actual working and 
care of such engines and machinery as are usually found on a modern farm. The 
answers obtained in the written papers and the viva voce examinations indicated that 
the candidates knowledge was mainly theoretical, or derived from books — many of 
them had never seen an engine working except at Shows, and their knowledge of 
implements was generally confined to one type only. 
In my opinion an actual experience of the working of oil engines, also steam engines 
and boilers, is most important for an agriculturist, and opportunities should be given 
to the students for acquiring this knowledge. 
Agricultural Chemistry. E. J. Russell, D. Sc. and Herbert Ingle, B. Sc. 
Old Regulations (Part II.), 200 Marks. New Regulations, 300 Marks. 
Some of the candidates were distinctly good and had evidently been well grounded 
m their subject, but a certain number possessed only a fragmentary and disconnected 
w -hich could ^hardly be of any real service to them in their subsequent work. 
they formed two classes— those who had a fairly wide knowledge of practical 
agru ulture but a slender acquaintance with chemistry, and those who possessed a fair 
P 3 ^agricultur ^ ure c b em i s try but knew little of the applications of chemistry 
It cannot be too strongly emphasised that agricultural chemistry is useful to the 
student only when he combines a good working knowledge of chemistry with a sound 
appreciation of the conditions obtaining in actual farm practice. 
Agricultural Botany. R. Stewart MacDougall, M.A., D.Sc. 
New Regulations, 300 Marks. 
Tfll! 3u e n f ; ^ndidates in Agricultural Botany acquitted themselves creditably, and the 
result of the examination affords good proof of the excellence of the teaching in the 
ce f tr | f • Thirteen per cent, of the candidates failed, while 17 per cent, gained 
75 per cent, of the marks or over. s 
