8 MAIZE 



CHAP, of good farming and good management, it can be trebled and 



L even quadrupled. The present low yields are considered to just 



about cover expenses of production ; if the yield were more 



than doubled, therefore, maize-growing should pay, provided 



prices hold good and cost of export remains low. 



The exact acreage under maize in South Africa is not 

 known, but it is grown on practically every occupied farm in 

 the Transvaal Province. Many farmers are growing 200 to 

 1,000 acres each, and at least three have 6,000 acres under 

 crop to maize. A good deal is also grown by Kaffirs, for their 

 own use, both on native locations and on rented farms. The 

 farms average about 5,000 acres each, but the area planted to 



Fig. 4. — 'Five miles of maize fields at Vereeniging, on the High-veld of the 

 Transvaal. 



maize is often not more than 5 to 10 acres per tarm, and 

 sometimes less. There are 11,679 registered farms in the 

 Transvaal, of which about one-half are occupied ; allowing an 

 average of 10 acres per farm, the total area in maize (outside 

 of Native Locations) would be only 60,000 acres, and an 

 average yield of four muids per acre gives, roughly, but 

 240,000 muids. 



Only a very limited area of the Transvaal seems unsuited 

 to the production of maize, but if we take into consideration 

 only the farms at present occupied, and allow 250 acres of 

 maize to every 1,000 acres of land, by raising the average 

 production to merely 5 muids {\J\ bushels') per acre, the 



