734 MAIZE 



CHAP. September and October when there is usually the greatest 

 ' scarcity of food. 



But it is the despised mielie that will do most to save 

 the situation. Maize is not only the staple crop of South 

 Africa, but it is essentially the dry-farmers' crop. It was 

 proved in the dry season of 1911-12 that a paying crop could 

 be produced with less than 12 inches of rain, and the writer 

 saw crops which were actually grown in the Orange Free State 

 with a rainfall of only 8 inches between 1 October and 30 

 April. 



Even in the driest years, and when the rains come late, 

 maize can be grown for fodder or silage over a large part of 

 South Africa, because it can be planted, for these purposes, so 

 much later than when grown for grain. 



There are farmers who grew winter food, and who yet were 

 on the verge of suffering and loss, because their supplies were 

 practically exhausted before the new grass came on. But 

 these men, while they did well to keep their stock in condition 

 so long, might have done better by providing two stacks of 

 hay and two pits of silage for every one which they did make. 

 Even if not required, it would not have been wasted, for in the 

 climate of South Africa hay or silage will keep till a second 

 year, if necessary, without any difficulty. It is the regular 

 practice of European farmers to have one stack of old hay un- 

 touched when the new one is built, and it has been the 

 plan at the Botanical Experiment Station, Pretoria, to start 

 winter feeding with a two-year-old silage pit, reserving the 

 current season's pit for the succeeding year, or for an emer- 

 gency. One of the truest remarks made at the 191 2 Dry 

 Farming Congress, at Bloemfontein, was that, instead of ex- 

 pecting a drought once in five years, the farmer should prepare 

 for one every year; if this advice is followed, he will be safe. 

 Another good point was made at the same Congress, when 

 Mr. J. J. van Niekerk urged farmers not to carry more stock 

 than they could provide winter food for. 



693. The Feeding-value of an Acre of Maize. — If we should 

 hear to-day, for the first time, of a grass which would yield up 

 to 18 tons of dry food from an acre of ground, and of which 

 the supply of seed was limited and the cost exorbitant, there 

 would be a scramble for it such as there was for Northern Star 



