E.-U.

Elementary Knowledge of Agriculture. — For Class D. Time allowed : Three hours. 1. Draw up a set of demonstrations which you would adopt in illustration of a lesson on the seeding of wheat, if a plot of land were available near the school. 2. Write an article on ergot. 3. Discuss nitrification in soils. 4. Give notes of a lesson on exhaustion of the soil. 5. Write a short article on bone manures. 6. Write a paper on the cultivation, treatment, and utilisation of rape. 7. If nitrate of soda 95 per cent, pure be worth £11 a ton, what is the value of nitrogen per unit? Show clearly how your result has been reached.

General Agriculture. — For Civil Service Senior. Time allowed : Three hours. 1. Discuss underground drainage as au improvement of land. Describe different methods practised. At how much an acre would you estimate the cost of tile draining? Show in detail how your estimate is made up. 2. Discuss the benefits of bare fallow. Is the practice of bare-fallowing justifiable in New Zealand ? Argue the question. 3. Describe the preparation of the soil for a turnip crop. Give the characteristics of six good varieties of the turnip. Indicate the cultivation and treatment you would adopt for the crop. 4. Compare the merits of rape and thousand-headed kale as forage crops. 5. Discuss the general management of a dairy herd. Argue the merits of the breed of cows you prefer, as compared with other recognised dairy breeds. 6. In selecting a farm, how would you be guided in forming an opinion of the climate, the capacity of the soil, and the value of the land ? 7. Give the characteristics of four of the best grasses for permanent pasture. State what seeds you would mix, and the quantity of each to the acre you would sow, for one year's mowing followed by two years' pasture. 8. Give the points of an English Leicester ram. Argue the merits of the breeds of sheep best adapted for breeding fat lambs. 9. Give the life history of the diamond-back moth.

Agricultural Chemistry. — For Civil Service Senior. Time allowed : Three hours. 1. State the chemical and the physical differences between clayey, loamy, sandy, and calcareous soils. 2. What do you understand by the term " available condition " as applied to the constituents of soils ? 3. Describe the chemical changes that take place during the process of nitrification, stating by what agencies they are produced, and what conditions are necessary to the process. 4. Contrast the action of nitrate of soda with that of sulphate of ammonia when used as top dressing for grain crops. 5. How would you determine whether the phosphoric acid in a manure existed in the form of soluble, retrograde, or insoluble phosphate ? 6. State the chemical changes that take place during the germination of a seed. 7. Give the general composition of root crops, cereal grains, and oil seeds. 8. What are the functions of albuminoids, fats, and carbohydrates respectively when used as foods for animals ? 9. A cattle food contains 4 per cent, of nitrogen, 3 per cent, of fat, and 40 per cent, of digestible carbohydrates. Calculate its albuminoid ratio, and state for what purpose you consider the food best suited. 10. Name the constituents of milk, and show how they become distributed in the manufacture of butter and of cheese.

Agricultural Botany. — For Civil Service Senior. Time allowed: Three hours. 1. Describe an experiment that shows the importance of iron to a plant. 2. Describe the leaf of a typical flowering plant with reference to form, structure, and function. 3. What do you know of the action of fungi in promoting the growth of flowering plants? What plants take special advantage of the aid of fungi, and in what soils do such plants form a crop that may be of special value ? 4. A sample of seed is to be tested for quality and for freedom from impurities. How would you proceed in making the tests? Write a brief report such as you would make after testing a sample of cocksfoot seed. 5. What is peach curl ? What conditions are favourable to it, and what steps should be taken to prevent its attacks and to deal with trees already affected ? 6. How would you prepare a heavy clay soil to produce a crop of cabbages ? What attacks of vegetable origin would the crop be likely to suffer from if your preparations were neglected ? 7. What do you know of the following plants : Self-heal, giant burdock, fleabane, Bathurst bur ? In what kinds of land is each of these likely to be troublesome ? What steps would you take to deal with each of them, and when ? 8. To what natural orders do the following plants belong : Potato, Danthonia semi- annularis, flax (Linum), mangel? In what does the economic importance of each of these plants mainly consist ?

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