CLIMATE AS EFFECTIXG AGRICULTURE 3 



be found in more than one life zone, but even with 

 these there is always a region where they thrive best 

 and seem most at home. A study of these life zones 

 in any country is of considerable practical impor- 

 tance to the farmer, for a knowledge of the life zone 

 in which he is located will show at once what the 

 probabilities of success will be with the different 

 cultivated crops. Thus in the Hudsonian zone he 

 can plant potatoes, turnips, and barley, but not 

 corn. In the Alleghanian he can plant corn, wlieat, 

 and apples, but not cotton. In the Austro-riparian 

 he can plant cotton, corn, and rice, but not apples 

 and wheat. 



Altitude as effecting Climate. — If we pass from 

 base to summit of a high mountain, we will find that 

 altitude affects temperature in exactly the same way 

 as latitude. Thus on every high mountain in the 

 tropics, in the course of a few miles we may traverse 

 all the life zones from the tropical jungles and per- 

 petual heat of the base to the perpetual snow and 

 ice of the summit. In fact, it is in mountainous 

 countries that these life zones are most clearly 

 marked. This is due to the fact that distances are 

 so much shorter and comparisons so much more 

 easily made. On level lands the boundaries usually 

 overlap and are indistinct, but on steep mountains 

 they are often very clearly marked, one kind of vege- 

 tation beginning and another ending very abruptly. 

 The majority of wild animals and plants do not have 

 a vertical range of more than a thousand feet. 



Topography as effecting Climate. — A careful study 

 of the life zones in a mountainous country will soon 



