GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 59 



Drakensberg ; but the major part comes from the plateau be- chap. 

 tween 4,000 and 5,500 feet. The south-western Districts are IIL 

 less suited to the production of the ordinary types of maize 

 owing to low rainfall, short growing season, and often shallow 

 soil. But it is probable that in time breeds will be developed 

 especially suited to the climate and soil of that part of the 

 country. 



56. Relative Yields of Transvaal Districts. — The relative 

 productiveness of a District cannot be determined from the 

 actual number of bags of grain produced by it, for the simple 

 reason that the areas of the different Districts are so enor- 

 mously disproportionate ; as an example we need only com- 

 pare that of Bethal (384,000 morgen) with the Zoutpansberg, 

 which is nineteen times its size (7,256,400 morgen 1 ). The 

 best method of comparison of relative productiveness is to 

 reduce the yield to the average of some unit common to all, 

 e.g. an acre, morgen, or square mile. 



The writer has therefore reduced the maize yields of the 

 Transvaal to the average per square mile, which is the most 

 convenient unit to use in the present state of agricultural de- 

 velopment. In the following table (XII) the Districts are 

 arranged in order of productiveness. 



If we considered only the total production of a District, 

 we should have to give Lichtenburg first place with 191,405 

 bags, whereas in yield per square mile of veld she comes 

 only sixth on the list. 



The value of closer settlement and consequent improve- 

 ment in cultivation of the soil are clearly brought out by the 

 fact that the Witwatersrand goldfields produce more maize 

 per square mile than any other District of the Transvaal. 

 The Witwatersrand, comprising the Magisterial Districts of 

 Johannesburg, Germiston, and Boksburg, is the most thickly 

 populated area in the Transvaal; it covers only 556 square 

 miles, a large part of which is occupied by mines, mine 

 dumps, towns, and villages; yet in 1909 it produced 68,400 

 muids of maize, or I22'8 per square mile, almost doubling the 

 yield of Bethal, the next largest producing District. , The 

 soils of the Witwatersrand are not as suitable for maize culture 

 as those of many other parts of the country. 



1 1 morgen = 2-1:65402 acres. 



