26 OATS, MAIZE 



New Zealand has a climate eminently suited to them, 

 and produces nearly as large a crop as the whole of Australia. 



SUMMARY. We are able to produce in Britain 75 per cent, 

 of our requirements. 



Of our imports in 1913 we bought from foreign countries 

 (mainly from the Argentine, Germany, Russia, and the United 

 States) 15 million cwt., and from British possessions 2 million, 

 chiefly from Canada, New Zealand and Australia contributing 

 smaller amounts. 



MAIZE (Tsa Mays}. Among the items of expenditure in the 

 palace of the Mexican emperor in the fifteenth century we 

 read of 4,900,000 fanegas of maize. (A fanega was equal to 

 about 100 lb.). 



The word maize is supposed to be derived from the Haytian 

 word mahiz, and Mexico is considered the probable home 

 of the plant, though now it is grown in nearly all warm 

 countries. 



It is thus described by a writer in the year A. D. 1600 : 



' This Mais will grow in a moyst fatty and hot ground, and 

 branche twice a yeare, it is not sowed like other corne, but 

 it is thrust into the ground as we used to do beanes in our 

 Countrey : it lieth not long in the ground, but soone springeth 

 up, andgroweth higher than a man's length above the ground, 

 like to great Reeds that grow in the water, or in drowned land, 

 wherewith husbandmen used to cover their sheds : every 

 Reed hath his eares whereon the corne groweth, and notwith- 

 standing that they are very heavy eares, as big as yong 

 cucumbers, and sharpe above like the top of a steeple, yet 

 every Reed hath seven or eight eares upon it. I have told 

 five hundred and fifty graines upon one Reed, which came 

 of one Graine alone. They are of divers colours, as White. 

 Blacke, Yellow, Purple, etc., and sometimes you shall have 

 three or foure colours tnereof in one eare. There are two 

 sorts thereof, great and small, the great Graine is stronger than 

 the small. They use the Reed to cover their houses.' 1 



It was introduced into Europe by Columbus, and in this 

 country is often called Indian Corn, this being the name 



1 A Description of Guinea, A. D. 1(500. 



