II 



CLIMATE AND SOIL 



21 



in latitude and altitude to coco-nut culture. In indi- 

 vidual places, however, there may be other limiting 

 factors. For instance, in the coco-nut country im- 

 mediately around Mount Banahao, the highest groves 

 are in an exceedingly moist district, and the moisture, 

 by favouring the spread of bud rot, makes coco-nut 

 cultivation unprofitable in a zone where the temperature 

 would still permit it. On any large scale this palm is 

 cultivated only within 20 degrees of the equator, but in 

 locally favourable places it is a profitable crop at least as 

 far as to the tropics. There are grown trees as far 

 south as Fort Dauphin in Madagascar, latitude about 

 25° south, and as far north as Lucknow in India, 

 latitude about 27°, but they are said to be unproductive. 

 They bear fruit at about the same latitude in Florida, 

 but not on an industrial scale. The low shores of 

 Florida, washed by the Gulf Stream, are probably the 

 most northern point at which coco-nuts can be grown 

 in the open even as curiosities. 



The limit in altitude depends, of course, upon the 

 latitude. In general, the coco-nut will grow at the 

 greatest altitudes on, or a little north of, the equator. 

 In Java, Ceylon, Mindanao, and Luzon there are 

 bearing trees up to an altitude of 800 metres, but 

 nowhere so high on a commercial scale. Grown, but 

 unproductive, trees, are reported in India at a latitude 

 of 12° north, at an altitude of 1350 metres. At 

 Batan, Benguet, in Luzon, latitude 15°, and altitude 

 1100 metres, there are also unproductive trees, but 

 so few and scattered that their sterility may be due 

 to want of pollination as well as to the altitude. On 

 a commercial scale, coco-nuts are grown only at much 

 lower levels, the limit in general being about 300 metres 

 in Ceylon and Malaya, and 200 metres in Polynesia. 

 The reasons for these limits are in part climatic and 

 in part commercial, the cost of marketing the product 

 being likely to vary with the altitude. As one goes 

 farther from the equator the coco-nut is naturally 

 confined more strictly to the lowlands. In Jamaica 



