4 8 



MAIZE 



CHAP. 



III. 



East Africa, Madagascar, Mesopotamia, Ceylon, China, Japan, 

 the Malay Archipelago, and New Caledonia. 



36. Distribution in the United States. — The United States 

 has 108,750,000 acres under maize and produces 75 per cent 

 of the world's crop, but though maize is grown to a greater or 

 less extent in most of the States of the Union, 58 per cent of 

 the crop is produced in the comparatively small region com- 

 prising the seven central States of Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, 

 Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio. These are known as 

 the "Corn-surplus States," because they are practically the 

 only States which grow more than is required for their own 

 consumption. Their combined area is only about 268,000,000 

 acres, or 1 1 4- per cent of the total area of the United States, 

 and some 25,000,000 acres less than the area of the Union of 

 South Africa excluding native territories. Only 1 8 per cent of 

 the land of these seven corn-surplus States is planted to maize, 

 but it produces 481,614,384 muids, or 58 per cent of the total 

 crop of the country. The area of the Transvaal is approxi- 

 mately 7 1 ,000,000 acres ; if only 1 8 per cent were under crop 

 to maize, and if the average yield were only 5 muids per acre 

 (only half the average of the Corn-belt), the Transvaal would 

 be producing the respectable crop of 64,000,000 muids of 

 maize. 



Table IX. 

 STATISTICS OF THE MAIZE-SURPLUS STATES. 



The maize zone of the United States may, for practical 

 purposes of competition with other parts of the world, be 



