iS3 
is reviewed, and particularly some interesting results obtained 
in the production of new varieties by natural cross-fertilization. 
There are several experiment farms under the control of the 
Department of Agriculture, three or four of which are specially 
devoted to wheat culture. In addition, the Education Depart- 
ment has made wheat growing a subject for Nature-study in 
the schools. 
In this State, also, a small wheat-testing mill has been estab- 
lished, where new varieties can be milled and the flour tested 
and baked into loaves. 
Queensland.—As this State is not, at present, an extensive 
producer of wheat, less attention has been given to wheat 
breeding. Some of the earlier work in connection with diseases 
in wheat is dealt with. The Department of Agriculture, how- 
ever, encourages experimental work in wheat, and two or three 
of the farms devote a considerable amount of attention to 
wheat experiments. Seed wheat true to type is grown for 
farmers, and a wheat-testing mill is in operation. 
The paper closes with a discussion of the possible future 
extension of the area on which wheat growing can be carried 
on profitably in Australia. 
THE PRODUCTION OF MAIZE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 
TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
By JosepH Burtt-Davy, 
Botanist, Agricultural Supply Association, Ltd., Johannesburg, 
Soutn Africa. 
[ ABSTRACT. | 
It is not, perhaps, generally realized that the world’s annual 
consumption of maize is greater than that of wheat, actually 
447,000,000 bushels more. At the same time it takes only one- 
half of the acreage sown with wheat to produce the same 
quantity of maize; in other words, maize yields twice as much 
per acre as wheat, and is therefore the cheaper crop to produce, 
other things being equal. In addition to this, the maize crop 
yields a larger quantity of highly nutritious stock-food, in the 
form of “‘stover’’ (dry stalks and leaves), than is the case 
with wheat or any other farm crop grown, excepting, perhaps, 
sugar cane and the sorghums. 
The world’s annual consumption of maize grain is about 
3,929,000,000 bushels. This grain is used as food for man and 
his domestic animals, and also as a source of supply of alcohol, 
starch, glucose, dextrin, corn oil, glycerine, cellulose, and 
