CHAPTER VI 



CLIMATE 



be grown 



suitable 



climates. 



Climate controls the growth of plants more than anything 

 else, and one of the first questions the planter has to consider 

 is whether the climate is suitable to the cultivation he intends 

 Plants must to take up. The soil of p-arts of Holland may be suitable in 

 every way to the growth of the sugar cane, and the soil of 

 Jamaica to the growth of beet-roots for sugar, but the 

 climate, in both instances, prevents the possibility of success, 

 if even any one were foolish enough to try it. And yet the 

 Jamaican succeeds with the sugar cane, and the Dutchman 

 makes sugar from his large crops of beet-roots, for the 

 reason, simply, that the climate of Jamaica is adapted to the 

 cane, and the climate of Holland to the beet. 



Climate implies the greater or less degree of heat and 

 light and moisture — that is to say, the principal conditions 

 that affect vegetation and render a country fit for the abode 

 of man and animals. Climate is generally determined by 

 latitude ; it is hottest at the equator, and it becomes colder 

 the nearer we approach the poles. This general rule, 

 however, is subject to exceptions, the chief one being eleva- 

 tion above the level of the sea. Near the equator there 

 are mountains over 16,000 ft. high, the summits of which 

 are covered with snow all the year round. Humboldt, the 

 great German explorer, discovered that the thermometer fell 

 one degree for every 343 feet of elevation, and thus in moun- 

 tainous countries the climate really depends on the height 



What 

 climate is. 



Latitude. 



Elevation. 



