362 MAIZE 



CHAP, the greatest hindrances in the past to the use of commercial 

 VIlL fertilizers in the interior provinces has been their high cost, 

 due to high rate of transportation inland. In view of the fact 

 that South African soils are not as fertile as those of other 

 countries competing for the maize trade, it is important to the 

 farmer that the cost of fertilizers should be reduced to the 

 lowest possible figure. It would result not only in an enor- 

 mous increase in the output of crop, both for local consumption 

 and for export, but in tremendous increase in the amount 

 of fertilizer used and consequently in the increase of trade in 

 that commodity. 



320. Residual Value of Manures. — Farmyard manure and 

 the chemical manures do not always yield up the whole of their 

 component salts to the crop the first season. Prof. Watt (2) 

 found in carrying out manurial experiments that the residual 

 value of the fertilizers used is a matter of greater importance 

 in the Transvaal than in almost any other part of the world. 

 Phosphatic fertilizers, like superphosphate and basic slag, may 

 have a greater effect on the second crop than on that to which they 

 are applied. With the dry winter climate of the South African 

 Maize-belt, even such a soluble manure as nitrate of soda has 

 some residual value. A judicious use of maize fertilizers will 

 give a profitable return, even from poor land, provided two 

 years' results are taken into account. On some soils the use 

 of 600 lbs. per acre of commercial fertilizer for a crop of pota- 

 toes leaves enough plant-food in the soil to afterward produce 

 two excellent crops of maize in succession (IT 3 1 5). Farmers 1 

 in the Standerton District of the Transvaal have obtained 20 

 muids of maize per acre the first year, and 1 5 the second year, 

 after a potato crop which had been manured in this way. 



321. Stable and Kraal Manure. — Organic manures, such 

 as farmyard manure, are found to be among the best of fertilizers, 

 perhaps because of the effect ol the large amount of organic 

 matter contained, on the texture of the soil (IT 312). As 

 already pointed out, the function of farmyard manure is chiefly 

 restorative. The pasturing of cattle on the old maize fields 

 undoubtedly has a beneficial effect on the soil, but is not an 

 equivalent compensation for such a large amount of grain 

 (over a ton per acre) as is removed from the land. 



1 Messrs. Hutchinson and Shaw, and Messrs. Reynolds Bros. 



