298 On the Homoothermal method of Acclimating [April 



" The fine harvests of Egypt and of the kingdom of Algiers, those of 

 the valleys of Aragua and the interior of the island of Cuba, sufficiently 

 prove, that the augmentation of heat is not prejudicial to the harvest of 

 icheat and other alimentarij grain* unless it is attended with an excess 

 of drought or moisture. To this circumstance no doubt we must attri- 

 bute the apparent anomalies, that are sometimes observed between the 

 tropics, in the inferior limit of corn. We are astonished to see to the 

 east of the Havanah, in the famous district of Quatro Villas, this limit 

 descend almost to the level of the ocean ; while to the west of the Ha- 

 vanah, on the slope of the mountains of Mexico and Xalapa, at six hun- 

 dred and seventy-seven toises of height, the luxury of vegetation is 

 such, that wheat does not form ears.f At the beginning of the con- 

 quest, the corn of Europe was cultivated with success in several regions, 

 which are now thought too hot, or too damp, for this branch of agricul- 

 ture. The Spaniards recently removed to America were less accustom- 

 ed to live on maize ; they still adhered to their European customs ; they 

 did not calculate whether corn would be less profitable than coffee or 

 cotton ; they tried seeds of every kind ; they interrogated nature with 

 more boldness, because their reasonings were less founded on false 

 theories. The province of Carthagena, crossed by the chain of the 

 mountains Maria and Guamoco, produced wheat till the sixteenth 

 century. In the province of Caraccas, this culture is very ancient 

 among the mountainous lands of Tocuyo, Quibor, and Barquisimeto, 

 which connect the littoral chain with the Sierra Nevada of Merida. It 

 is still happily practised there, and the environs of the town of Tocuyo 

 alone export annually more than eight thousand quintals of excellent 

 flour." 



It does not appear, from these extracts, that high temperature is such 

 an insurmountable obstacle to the successful culture of the Cerealiaj, as 

 the authors of the memoir would lead us to believe. They seem 

 indeed to have been so captivated with the simplicity and conclusive- 

 ness of their theory, that they have disregarded many old and well 

 known facts opposed to their conclusions. Still it is not too late ; the 

 same ingenuity that suggested their first very simple and beautiful 

 series of experiments, might with equal facility indicate others leading 

 to still more important results, by showing how we may be able to sub- 



* This passage seems very strongly opposed to the deductions of Messrs. Edwards and 

 Colin, but cannot be considered as invalidating their accuracy until supported by compa- 

 rative statements of temperature at the time of sowing in the respective countries. 



t Whether is this explanation of the non-production of ears, or that of Edwards, tho 

 true one 1 I myself feel inclined to adopt the latter as being the more probable of the 

 two. 



