AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS 



[PT. I 



It will be noticed that the range is greater the lower the 

 humidity, in addition to increasing as one passes to the north ; 

 compare for instance Madura and Cochin, which are in approxi- 

 mately the same latitude. 



The prevailing character of the climate near the equator 

 and near the sea, as at Colombo, is a very uniform temperature, 

 with rain at all times of year, but more especially when the sun 

 has just passed overhead. Near the equator, therefore, there 

 are two more specially rainy seasons in the year, at intervals 

 of about six months, while as one goes northward they get 

 nearer and nearer together, till in the far north or south of the 

 tropics they run into one rainy season of a few months duration, 

 as the following tables of rainfall will illustrate. 



Colombo Trichinopoli Bangalore 



Rainy seasons indicated by brackets. 



The longer the dry season, the hotter, generally speaking, it 

 becomes, so that in the north of India the heat is often extreme 

 at the end of the dry weather, whereas, near the equator, where 

 there is rain at all times, the highest temperatures recorded are 

 rarely above 90. The range of temperature is greater in the 

 northern hemisphere than in the southern, where the land 

 masses are smaller, and only in the interior of Australia does 

 the temperature become anything like so high as in north 

 India. 



1 Blanford, Climate and Weather of India and Ceylon. 



