194 MAIZE PRODUCTION. 



the diverse needs of the farmer, the student, the teacher, and 

 others concerned with the maize industry and its various branches, 

 such as commerce, manufactures, and the supply of agricultural 

 implements, machinery, and fertilisers. It is inscribed to 

 General Botha, whose photograph constitutes the frontispiece, 

 and there are 245 other illustrations. The author is not sparing 

 of statistical and other tabular information, no less than 132 

 tables being embodied in the work. In his opening chapter, on 

 the importance of the maize crop, Mr. Burtt-Davy takes care to 

 l»int out that this importance, great as it is, is not wholly derived 

 from tlie grain, for there are other parts of the plant deserving 

 of a more extended use for winter-feeding than they are put to 

 at present. Even the refuse of maize may be put to a variety 

 of industrial uses, and probably when South Africa awakes to 

 an adequate realisation of the commercial possibilities of many 

 products that are now regarded as so much waste, the cobs, 

 stalks, and straw of maize will take their place with other articles 

 like seaweed and prickly pear, that are now looked upon as mere 

 cumberers. In his closing chapter the author returns to this 

 phase of the subject, and it is to be hoped that some, amongst 

 the many who are sure to study this book, will turn from the 

 reading of that final chapter with strong desires to give practical 

 effect to the hints contained therein. Emphatic endorsement is 

 given to the opinion that South Africa will be in days to come 

 the maize granary of Europe, and although the professor of 

 Economics at Harvard. Professor T. N. Carver, considers maize 

 to be the leading product of the United States and maize-grow- 

 ing the leading industry, Mr. Burtt-Davy, echoing the views 

 expressed in the brochure of 190Q, is convinced that for maize 

 production South Africa has enormous advantages over America. 

 The dryness of the winter allows the South African farmer to 

 harvest and shell in the field up to the very day when he starts 

 planting his new crop ; in South Africa the percentage of grain 

 damaged by the weather is exceedingly small; and the moisture 

 content of the grain is some 5 per cent, lower in South African 

 maize than in the American article. To these advantages may be 

 added the considerations that South Africa has an excellent local 

 market for a large part of her maize crop, and, because she owns 

 her own railways, she can carry the surplus to the coast at cost. 

 Three chapters are assigned to the climatic requirements, the 

 geographical distribution, and the botanical characters of maize, 

 three to maize-breeding, four to what may be termed maize 

 agrostology, including maize pests, and in the later chapters the 

 chemistry and feeding value of maize are dealt with, as well as 

 its preservation by silage. Finally, there is a bibliography of 

 over 400 titles. Altogether the South African maize grower will 

 find in this monograph a compendium of information and advice 

 excellently adapted to his peculiar needs. 



