105 



sugar-canes, coffee, and plantains. Excepting 

 the interior of the island of Cuba*, we scarcely 

 find any where else in the equinoctial regions 

 European corn cultivated in large quantities in 

 so low a region. The fine fields of wheat in 

 Mexico are between six hundred and twelve 

 hundred toises of absolute elevation ; and it is 

 rare to see them descend to four hundred toises. 

 We shall soon perceive, that the produce of 

 grain augments sensibly, from high latitudes 

 toward the Equator, with the mean temperature 

 of the climate, in comparing spots of different 

 elevations. The success of agriculture depends 

 on the dryness of the air ; on the rains distri- 

 buted among different seasons, or accumulated 

 in one rainy season; on winds blowing con- 

 stantly from the east, or bringing the cold air 

 of the North into very low latitudes, as in the 

 gulf of Mexico ; on mists, which for whole 

 months diminish the intensity of the solar rays ; 

 in short, on a thousand local circumstances, 

 which have less influence on the mean tempe- 

 rature of the whole year, than on the distribu- 

 tion of the same quantity of heat among the 

 different parts of the year. It is a striking 

 spectacle, to see the grain of Europe cultivated 

 from the Equator as far as Lapland, in the lati 

 tude of 69°, in regions where the mean heat is 



* The district of Quatro Villas. 



