CEREALS 113 



European ports for about us. 6~d. per ton, or 2s. 6d. per 

 muid from inland station delivered on the wharves at 

 London. From time to time the policy of the Govern- 

 ment in fostering the export trade has been criticized on 

 the ground, sound in itself, that it is better to feed our 

 maize crop than to export a raw product. But this 

 objection is based on less than a half truth; while admit- 

 ting that it is better to feed the crop locally than to 

 export, one must not forget that the export trade has 

 done more than anything else to develop the maize 

 industry of South Africa by (i) steadying the local market 

 and thus preventing prices from dropping below payable 

 figures ; (2) encouraging the greater production of maize ; 

 (3) bringing capital into the country at a time when we 

 could not produce enough beef, mutton, or wool for 

 export. 



The rapid development of the industry may be gauged 

 by the fact that whereas in the year 1904-5 the Transvaal 

 alone imported maize to the extent of 375,147 muids 

 (valued at 218,659), m I 96 she exported 3,716 muids 

 and in 1910 exported 759,830 muids, while all the time 

 her local consumption was rapidly increasing. 



Maize for Stock Food. Valuable as is the maize grain 

 in the arts and manufactures, and important as an export 

 trade is, it must not be forgotten that the primary value 

 of the crop is as a source of food for stock. Not only 

 is the grain a valuable stock food, but the stalks and 

 leaves make a most palatable and nutritious stock food, 

 either as silage, hay, or stover. With a threatened 

 shortage of meat in the more densely populated parts of 

 the world people are seeking new countries of supply, 

 and those countries which can produce good maize crops 

 are likely to come to the fore as beef producers. In the 

 United States, the home of maize, the chief use of this 

 crop is as food for domestic animals. " In connection 

 with grass, it is the meat-producing material of the United 

 States. The wonderful development of our pork industry 

 is directly related to our maize crop. . . . .The ears 

 of maize are the natural food of the civilized hog." 

 (Hunt). 



Machinery. There is a good and rapidly growing 

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