5i8 MAIZE 



CHAP. Beerbohm's Evening Corn Trade List (London). 



XIL George Dornbusch's Floating Cargoes Evening List. 



Cincinnatti Price Current. 

 Orange Judd Far titer. 



495. Prices Affected by the Worlds Supply and Demand. — 

 Prices are governed by the European demand for maize for 

 stock food, and also by the surplus supply available from the 

 larger producing countries. The world's supply is increasing, 

 and it is only the recurrence of unfavourable seasons, in 

 various parts of the producing area, that has kept prices so 

 high. Nevertheless the world's demand for maize for stock 

 feeding and manufacturing purposes is also increasing rapidly, 

 and this will tend to keep prices up, though it cannot reason- 

 ably be expected that they will remain as good as they have 

 been in recent years. 



496. Some Factors which Control Prices itt the Worlds Maize 

 Market. — South Africa is in the rather fortunate position of 

 being able to market her maize before the North American 

 crop is in sight, and after the bulk of the Argentine crop has 

 been moved. Nevertheless the crops of these two regions will, 

 for some time to come, largely govern the prices obtainable for 

 South African maize in the European markets. The size 

 and condition of the South European crop also affects prices. 

 In those quarters in which maize can be substituted for wheat, 

 or wheat for maize, either as food or in the arts and manu- 

 factures, fluctuations in the size of the world's wheat crop also 

 affect the maize market. 



497. The World's Supply of Maize. — The importance of 

 maize as a source of food for man and his domestic animals 

 has led to its cultivation in practically all the tropical and sub- 

 tropical parts of the world. It is also grown in those parts of 

 the warm-temperate zone where the summer temperature and 

 rainfall are relatively high and sunshine is plentiful. 



Its wider distribution is limited, however, by its climatic 

 requirements. In countries thus meeting its requirements, 

 maize is the most extensively grown of any cereal crop, 

 because it is at the same time one of the most productive 

 and most easily produced crops. Some idea of its import- 

 ance may be gained from the fact that the world's crop of 



