Vol. XIII. No. 313. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Ul 



MAIZE: ITS HISTORY, CULTIVATION, HAND- 

 LING AND USES. By Joseph Burtt-Davy, F.L.S., F.R.C.S. 

 Longmans, Green & Co., London, 19U. Price 25s. 



At the present time there seems to be a general trend 

 in the direction of the compilation of te.Ktbooks devoted to 

 individual crops. Already standard works have appeared on 

 cotton, coconuts, and other tropical crops. In the present 

 volume we have what is undoubtedly a standard work on 

 Indian corn. In view of the fact that maize is strictly 

 speaking a subtropical crop, capable of being successfully 

 cultivated in both the Tropics and parts of the temperate 

 zone, the range of readers to whom this volume will be of 

 interest must be very great. It will however be in South 

 Africa that its appearance will be welcomed most, since the 

 author writes with special reference to this Dominion. 



Strictly speaking the book is an encyclopaedia, the 

 maize plant being treated from all points of view and the 

 subject-matter arranged in short sections numbering no less 

 than 772. The author begins by discussing the importance and 

 history of the crop, its climatic requirements and geographical 

 distribution. The amount of attention given to the botanical 

 characters of the plant is very great, occupying, in fact, 

 a third of the volume. All this information should 

 prove of the greatest value, particularly that in the 

 chapters dealing with the subject of inheritance and 

 improvement by breeding. Much of this information 

 is apparently the outcome of an examination of material 

 at Cambridge in conjunction with the authorities on 

 genetics at that University. Even the general reader 

 will appreciate from the illustrations alone the great interest 

 and possibilities which lie before the application of the 

 principles of gametic segregation to the maize plant. For 

 purposes of reference the chapter dealing with varieties will 

 be found useful, whilst that confined to judging and selection 

 should be stimulating in regard to educational movements 

 in connexion with the improvement of this crop. 



Coming to the soil requirements of the maize crop, the 

 reference to rotations appears interesting, particularly the 

 rotation being tried by the Division of Tobacco and Cotton 

 of the South African Department of Agriculture, which is 

 as follows: First year, tobacco; second year, cotton; third 

 year, a leguminous crop such as velvet beans, cowpeas or 

 soy beans; fourth j-ear, maize. The question of utilization 

 of artificial manures is discussed, and then the author 

 proceeds to tillage, planting and cultivation. In the 

 great countries where maize is the staple crop — the 

 United States, South Africa and the Argentine — not 

 fields but huge tracts of land are planted in this crop and 

 this, in the face of labour difficulties at the present day, 

 renders steam cultivation in most cases necessary. This 

 subject of mechanical cultivation is well described, and 

 .still better illustrated, in the chapter under consideration. 

 Indeed the subject of engineering in relation to the maize 

 crop is one of the most useful features of the book. In the 

 chapter on harvesting and storage, clear accounts are given 

 of the various picking, husking and shelling machines, and 



appliances which have been invented for drying the grain 

 previous to storage. This latter subject, by the way, is of 

 considerable interest in connexion with the maize industry in 

 the West Indies. 



Proceeding, we come to the big question of commerce 

 in maize grain. It would be impossible in the space of this 

 brief review to refer in more than a general manner to tlie 

 various considerations involved in this, the commercial side of 

 the maize industry. Of interest will be the methods of 

 elevating and transhipping, and the economics of supply 

 and demand. 



The latter part of the book deals with maize as fond. 

 In the chapter on the chemical composition of the maize grain, 

 the attention of chemists and plant breeders may be called to 

 the interesting figures showing the physical composition of 

 maize grains of high and low protein content. Perusal of the 

 last few pages of this volume will show that not only the 

 preservation and storage of the grain, but also that of the 

 green stuff for ensilage purposes, is quite an important branch 

 of the industry; whilst the various uses to which the crop 

 can be put, other than for food, as. for instance, for making 

 starch, glycerine, piper, mats, charcoal, gun powder and 

 medicine will engender in the mind of the reader a fuller 

 appreciation of the crop's economic importance 



In the course of the above review it already has been 

 intimated that the illustrations in this valuable volume leave 

 little to be desired. It may be added that the arrangement 

 of the subject-matter is excellent; whilst the book is 

 provided with a lengthy bibliography, and a fairly exhaustive 

 index. 



A PARASITE ON COFFEE. 



The following note has been taken from the 

 Montldi/ Bulletin of Agricidtitral Intelligence and 

 Plant Diseases (January 1914): — 



StiUium Aavidum, Cooke, is well known thi-oughout 

 tropical and sub-tropical America as the cause of roundish dry 

 spots on the leaves of coffee. The writers have recently 

 studied this fungus in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro on 

 coffee and other plants {Eriobotrya japonica and various 

 Melastomaceae, Compositae and Rubiacae). There is little 

 douVit that .S". JlavichuH occurs naturally in the forests on 

 various shrubs, This origin explains the local distiibution of 

 the fungus, which in Brazil occurs chiefly in the coastal 

 regions, where it finds the heat and moisture necessary for 

 its development. 



All attempts at further classification had been unsuccessful 

 owing to the sterility of the fungus. lu moist chambers the 

 writers have at last obtained fructifications of a typical Agaric, 

 the characters of which refer it to the genus Uniphalia; it ap- 

 parentlyconstitutes a new species (O.flavida); the resemblance 

 in colour and position of the Basidiomycete on the edge of the 

 spots as well as the occurrence in some of the spots of all 

 intermediate stages lietween Stilbum and Omphalia lead the 

 writers to consider that the former i.s merely an aliortive and 

 sterile stage of the latter. The absence of reproductive organs 

 in the sterile form is compensated by the vegetative growth of 

 the cells of the atrophied pileus, which l^ecomes loose and may 

 attach itself to other plants. This is their ordinary method 

 of reproduction: the Omphalia forms always require very 

 damp conditions such as must be rare even in forests during 

 the rainy .season. The persistence of great humidity is not 

 the only condition requisite for the development of the 

 Omphalia fruits: it seems that they only develop on the edges 

 of fresh spots, that is to say, in parts in which the mycelium is 

 young and well nourished. 



