6 MAIZE 



CHAP, "could be grown at all, as it is grown in the Corn-belt, if 

 L dependence had to be placed upon negro labour". The 

 Labour employed in that part of the country is entirely white, 

 earning about ,£5 per month and board the year round. Yet 

 that maize pays under these conditions is evident on all sides ; 

 it pays because it is a crop which can be handled almost en- 

 tirely by machinery ; because the soil is in good tilth ; because 

 the' crop is kept clean ; and, last but not least, because the 

 farmer uses well-bred seed. 



It is an instructive fact that in the American Maize-belt 

 the enormous aggregate of the crop is made up of the pro- 

 ducts' of a large number of small or moderate-sized farms, 

 runniiig from 80 to 300 acres in size, and worked mainly 

 by the owners themselves or by tenants who pay cash rent. 

 The reason for this, Prof. Carver (1) concludes, is that maize- 

 growing requires a higher ciass of farming than any of the 

 other staple crops, and cannot be so successfully carried on with 

 hired labour alone. It requires such close and conscientious 

 attention that it is doubtful if large farms, where the work 

 is done by hired labour, can ever compete successfully with 

 the smaller farms where the owner or renter does the work 

 himself, or at least has it done under his immediate care and 

 attention. ', With increased size of farm (as in the Western 

 States), there is noticeable a general decline in the intensity 

 of cultivation and consequent yield per acre, for good culti- 

 vation is essential to a good maize crop. 



7. Maize is the Staple Crop of South Africa. — Maize is not 

 only the staple food crop of the South African Kaffir, it has 

 become an important item in the diet of the white people ; 

 but more than this, it has also become the staple cash crop of 

 the South African farmer. In one of the writer's first Reports 

 to the Director of the Transvaal Department of Agriculture, 

 he stated that '\Maize is a crop eminently suited to the Trans- 

 vaal ; every farmer grows it to a limited extent, and a vast 

 quantity could b'e produced if he knew how to dispose of it. 

 By the application of capital and the use of proper machinery, 

 the maize crop cap be made extremely profitable." Further 

 observation and kudy not only confirm this view, but show 

 that perhaps no country in the world is better suited to 

 maize-growing on & large scale than South Africa ; it has an 



