PREFACE. 



The materials for this book have been collected during 

 a period of three or four years, but the book itself has 

 been written during a Term, and part of the Long 

 Vacation of 191 3, spent at the School of Agriculture, 

 Cambridge, where the author has been studying in- 

 heritance of characters. He has endeavoured to adapt 

 it to the needs of (1) the farmer; (2) students in the 

 Schools and Colleges of Agriculture ; (3) teachers in 

 the country schools who are endeavouring to interest 

 their pupils in Nature Study. He hopes, also, that 

 it will interest others concerned with the maize industry 

 in its various branches, e.g. commerce, manufactures, 

 and the supply of agricultural implements, machinery, 

 and fertilizers. 



It is a difficult task to meet such diverse needs, and 

 the result is necessarily open to criticism. The actual 

 time available for its preparation has been too short, 

 but if publication had not been completed before the 

 author's return to South Africa, it would have been 

 postponed indefinitely, and in the present stage of 

 development of the local maize industry, there seemed 

 to be a need for a book of this character. 



The author is indebted to the following, among other 

 gentlemen, for valuable assistance or contributions. 

 The information on milling has been supplied by 

 Mr. W. H. Horsfall of Aliwal North, and the chapter 

 on the construction of silos by Mr. A. Morrison Hay, 

 of the Public Works Department, Pretoria. For the 



