IO6 CEREALS 



Asia : 



British India. 

 Africa : 



Egypt. 



Sudan. 



Algeria. 



British South Africa. 

 Australasia : 



New South Wales. 



Queensland. 



Victoria. 



Western Australia. 



New Zealand. 



Maize is also grown, but to a lesser extent, in Central 

 America, the West Indies, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, 

 Peru, Uganda, British East Africa, Nyasaland, Mada- 

 gascar, Mesopotamia, Ceylon, China, Japan, the Malay 

 Archipelago, and New Caledonia. 



The geograpical distribution of maize as a profitable 

 farm crop is very markedly restricted by climatic con- 

 ditions, e.g., temperature, sunshine, amount and incidence 

 of rainfall, and the length of the growing season. Topo- 

 graphy and the character oif the soil, latitude and altitude, 

 are also important factors. Only where these several 

 factors are suitably combined does the culture of maize 

 become commercially successful; the absence of any one 

 of them may limit production on a large scale. 



It is important that we should understand the relation 

 of these several factors of the maize crop. Speaking 

 broadly, the most favourable conditions are long humid 

 summers, hot days and warm nights during the growing' 

 season, comparatively heavy, intermittent rains, with 

 abundance of clear sunshiny weather between. Maize is 

 essentially a tropical and sub-tropical crop, being an 

 annual, summer-growing plant, sensitive to frost. But 

 within the limits of the tropics and sub-tropical zones its 

 distribution is also limited. The desert and the tropical 

 jungle are alike unsuited to its commercial production, 

 the former from lack of moisture, and the latter from 

 lack of sunshine; maize is essentially a crop of the open 

 grass-steppe country at comparatively high altitudes. But 



