Edible Products. 



[April, 1909. 



ed that the judgment of the inspectors 

 should be guided and checked by actual 

 scientific determinations of the percent- 

 ages of moisture, of coloured grains, of 

 damaged grains, and of broken grains 

 and dirt ; though of course this could 

 not be done with every consignment, 

 but only with a certain number of 

 selected samples with a view to keeping 

 the standard of grading uniform. 



In Natal the Government has decided 

 to encourage the export of maize, and in 

 August of 1907 held a meeting of persons 

 interested in the matter in order to 

 obtain the advice and co-operation of 

 the farmers and merchants, and a 

 committee was formed to consider 

 the matter of grading. A Government 

 inspector has been appointed, and the 

 following set of regulations has been 

 issued :— 



Grading Regulations for Maize, 

 adopted by the South African Govern- 

 ments. Season 1008 ; Natal. 



The maize is to be classified as 

 follows:— (A) White Plat. (B) White 

 Round. (C) Yellow Plat. (D) Yellow 

 Round. (B) Mixed (partly white and 

 partly yellow in same bag). 



Choice White Flat (Dent).— To be flat, 

 sound, dry and reasonably clean, and not 

 to be deprived of its grade by reason of 

 an occasional red or discoloured grain. 



Choice White Round (Flint).— Similar 

 to the above, except that it must be 

 round (flint). 



Fair Average Quality White Flat 

 (Dent). — To be dry. The gx^ains may be 

 irregular in size as long as they are flat ; 

 and a reasonable quantity, not more 



than 8 per cent., may be yellow or 

 discoloured grains, 



Fair Average Quality White Round 

 (Flint).— Similar to above, except that it 

 must be round (flint). 



Choice Yellow Flat (Dent).— Must be 

 flat, dry, sound, well cleaned, and is not 

 to be deprived of its grade by reason of 

 an occasional white or discoloured grain. 



Choice Yellow Round (Flint).— Similar 

 to above, except that it must be round 

 (flint). 



Fair Average Quality Yellow Flat 

 (Dent). — Must be flat, sound, dry and 

 reasonably clean, and up to 8 per cent, 

 of white or discoloured grains should 

 not deprive it of its grade. 



Fair Average Quality Yellow Round 

 (Flint).— Similar to above, except that it 

 must be round (flint). 



Choice Mixed.— Ho be dry, sound and 

 reasonably clean. The maize may be 

 round or fiat. If the sample is mainly 

 white, yellow maize up to 20 per cent, 

 may be allowed ; if the sample is mainly 

 yellow, white maize up to 20 per cent, 

 may be allowed. 



Fair Average Quality Mixed.— Should 

 consist of dry, round or flat maize, or a 

 mixture of both chiefly yellow and whita 

 maize, and may contain up to 30 per 

 cent, of blue berries, 



Note. — In each of the foregoing cases 

 "below the standards set for fair aver- 

 age quality " will be regarded as 

 " below grade." 



Samples of these grades are exhibited 

 in the Natal Court of the Imperial 

 lustitute "— Bulletin of the Imperial In- 

 stitute, Vol. VI., No. 3', 1908. 



TIMBERS. 



THE COMING TIMBER FAMINE. 



A general famine of timber all the 

 world over within thirty years of the 

 present date is unhesitatingly prophe- 

 sied by Mr. Angus Hamilton of Berkeley, 

 California, in a letter to the Times. Mr. 

 Hamilton, it will be seen, believes that 

 England holds an answer to the situa- 

 tion in the forests of Uganda ; but his 

 predictions may rouse the Indian Forest 

 Department also to be on the qui vive 

 while there is time. He writes :— 



To those of us who have spent the 

 greater part of a lifetime in the inter- 

 national timber trade and have travelled 

 extensively the timber-producing re- 



gions of the world, it is a self-evident 

 fact that a time of scarcity is approach- 

 ing much more rapidly than most people 

 suppose — I would place the time of 

 scarcity at 25 to 30 years. At the present 

 rate of consumption the United States 

 supply will certainly be exhausted in 

 about that time and Canada, with the 

 United States drawing on it from now 

 on, cannot hold out much longer. All 

 the most accessible timber on the shores 

 of the Baltic has been used up, and the 

 interior supply will be gone in less than 

 30 years. With conditions like these to 

 be met in so short a time what are you 

 to do in the Old Country to meet it? 



In the short space of thirty years it 

 would be imposs ible to meet this famine 



