LOCAL CLIMATOLOGY. 105 



fall with westerly winds ; and observation shows that our average amount 

 is scarcely less than that which falls on the sea coast. 



The influence of our climatic peculiarities upon man and upon civiliza- 

 tion is an important topic, to which our thoughts naturally turn in con- 

 clusion of our general subject. Perhaps we have not observed enough 

 yet, to determine fully and finally what this influence is to be. I will, 

 however, make a suggestion. 



I doubt if any men, possessing the means of civilization, have inhab- 

 ited a coimtry in which the two most important elements have been 

 combined in such large proportions — the bracing effect of cold for men, 

 and the growing influences of warmth and moisture for the production 

 of those agricultural products most necessary for him and most largely 

 conducive to wealth. In the high latitudes the winters are too long and 

 cold, as well as the summers too short, for the production of those grains, 

 fruits, etc., which are necessary for a wealthy community and the highest 

 forms of civilization. In fact, when the average temperatm'e of the year 

 falls below 40°, or at least 35°, it is scarcely possible for the population to 

 become dense at all ; and even a sparse population can hardly raise so 

 much in the summer as they need for their support during the long and 

 severe winter that ensues ; and the faculties of men seem also to be in a 

 measure crippled and stinted by the rigors of the climate. In tropical 

 countries the heat is undoubtedly too great for the production of the 

 highest type of man. Any men would undoubtedly become degenerated 

 in a few generations hj the enfeebling influences of such continued heat. 

 Nor is this all. Although there are some forms of vegetable production 

 of the highest, nay of indispensable value to the life of highly civilized men , 

 which can be produced only in the long summers and under the continued 

 heat of a tropical, or nearly tropical sun, yet even in such favored lands 

 those crops which are most necessary, and contribute the largest amount 

 to the wealth of the community, either do not grow at all, or do not 

 succeed well. A simple and sufiicient proof of this is found in the fact 

 that land is never worth so much per acre in the tropics, and in latitudes 

 closely bordering upon them, as in latitudes farther removed from equa- 

 torial heat. Wheat will scarcely grow at all in the lands best adapted to 

 rice, cotton and sugar-cane. The corn that will grow on those lands is 

 neither so good, nor does it yield so well, as that which we raise in the 

 northern portions of the United States. The same is to be said of 

 the potatoe. And it is a matter of doubt if any crop of cotton, rice, 

 sugar-cane or other tropical j^roduction can be made to yield so much 

 Cab. Nat. 14 



