402 MAIZE 



CHAP. 360. Power. — The usual source of power employed on the 



,x - South African farm is the ox, most frequently the Africander 

 breed. The argument generally used in favour of the ox is 

 that he requires little artificial feed, and can be sold to the 

 butcher when his draught days are over. This may have held 

 good in the days of the 6,000-acre farm, and when the beef 

 market was less critical than it is to-day. But when we 

 think of the number of oxen required to haul a load or draw a 

 plough, and consider that the same grass necessary to keep 

 them might be making prime beef such as the trek-ox never 



Fir,. 152.— Adjustable Weeder. (Courtesy of Messrs. Malcomess & Co.) 



can produce, we begin to question where the economy of the 

 trek-ox comes in ; he is, at best, a slow beast and an expensive 

 form of power. When drawing the planter he makes crooked 

 rows, and when drawing the cultivator through the growing 

 maize he cuts out the plants in the bends which he made when 

 planting, thus still further decreasing the yield ; and he is so 

 ponderous and so slow in getting over the ground that a larger 

 number of planters and natives must be employed to cover a 

 given area in the limited amount of time available for planting 

 and cleaning, than would be needed if horses or good mules 

 were used. 



Tor the preparation of the land there is nothing to equal 



