OTHER USES OE THE MAIZE CROP 783 



overcome before new industries can be established ; these may chap. 

 include climatic conditions, relative scarcity of water, high cost xvn - 

 of living, scarcity and cost of skilled labour, cost of land for 

 factory sites, etc. With so much to handicap manufacturing 

 enterprises, their success must depend on the availability of 

 raw materials at low cost. It is evident, therefore, that — 

 other things being equal — the supply of crops well-established 

 and largely grown in the country is more likely to be uniform 

 in quantity and price than in the case of crops specially grown 

 to support a special industry. 



The conclusion seems reasonable that if maize can be ex- 

 ported profitably from South Africa for manufacture in Europe, 

 the saving on cost of export should materially offset the extra 

 cost incurred by manufacture in South Africa. Certain local 

 industries have already been established, and are running 

 successfully, even though a large part of the raw material used 

 by them is imported from over-sea. Maize is the staple crop 

 of South Africa, and the amount annually produced is increasing 

 rapidly ; it is therefore worth the careful attention of business 

 men looking for good business openings. It promotes eco- 

 nomical production for the factory to be as near as possible to 

 the source of supply of the raw material. 



A crop which can be utilized for the manufacture of many 

 distinct products and by-products is likely to be more eco- 

 nomically and profitably handled than one which is limited in 

 its application and from which there is a large residual waste. 

 The object of this chapter is to describe the large and varied 

 number of products which not only can be, but are, manufactured 

 from the maize plant, no part of which need be toasted. 



757. Starch.— The manufacture of maize starch has become 

 an extensive and important industry in North America. The 

 total output of the grain-starch factories of the United States, 

 in the census year 1900, had a value of over $8,000,000, or 

 approximately £1,700,000. Of this amount $6,900,000, or 

 86-25 per cent, was the value of the starch itself, and %l ,100,000, 

 or 1375 per cent, the value of the by-products of starch manu- 

 facture In 1906 the starch export of the United States 

 amounted to 33,287 tons, of 2,000 lbs., valued at £306,120. 

 Starch is used in the preparation of baking powder, and by 

 cotton and paper manufacturers for stiffening ; maize starch is 



