THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
such as climate and shipping facilities may seem to he as important but they 
are all secondary to that of “the man,” for man is master of his environ- 
ments. 
Climate. 
How man may change the climate of an Island is well illustrated in the 
case of St. Croix. That Island was, according to historical data, so damp,, 
when white men first visited it that they could not live there on account of 
sickness. They then proceeded to clear the forest and they succeeded so 
well, in course of time, that from being humid the Island has changed to 
being almost arid. Of course, in their eagerness for dry climate they over- 
did the clearing and in order to get back to more ideal conditions they will 
have to plant trees again. 
This we find that the planters in Porto Rico have done. The Americans 
when they first started orange groves, encountered conditions different from 
those they knew in Florida and California. They found that it was very 
difficult to combat scale insects, especially in the dry season. In well pro- 
tected spots they found, or the experiment station found for them, that the 
scale was kept in check by fungi. From that it was natural to reason that 
if whole fields were protected, the air would be humid enough to make the 
fungi grow there also. From that time they have planted windbreaks and 
have in that way, not alone overcome the scale pest but they have actually 
changed the climate, in sections where enough windbreaks have been planted. 
In the West Indies all small fiat Islands are dry Islands. A small Island 
that is not mountainous is almost sure to be denuded of forest and therefore 
dry. That is the case with the Leeward group of Islands as well as those 
along the Venezuelan coast. The Windward Islands, taking in Guadeloupe, 
Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Granada and Trinidad are all 
more or less mountainous and fairly well watered. Porto Rico, Santo Do- 
mingo, Haiti and Jamaica are also mountainous and are well watered on 
the North side. The South side is frequently too dry especially in Port© 
Rico. 
The altitude is not great enough in the West Indies for the production 
of temperate zone crops, such as wheat and apples. The temperature is 
considerably lower in the mountains and some crops, might be grown there 
that could not be made to thrive at sea level, if it were not for the heavy 
rainfall. I cannot remember, however, of an instance in Porto Rico where 
the altitude is of much economic importance for horticulture, except in the 
case of coffee; that is supposed to be of a better grade in the higher alti- 
tudes. Citrus fruits seem to ripen about the same time in the mountains 
and on the plains and the time of ripening is about the same as that of 
Florida. In Dominica, however, citrus fruits ripen much earlier in the 
mountains. In one grove of Bahias (Washington Navels), at an elevation of 
fifteen hundred feet the fruit ripens in August and September and I was told 
when I was there this year that everything is picked and shipped before 
Christmas. In addition to that I must say that possibly other factors enter 
in. After looking into the matter carefully I found that on budded Bahia 
orange trees, in Trinidad, the fruit was ready to ship in September and that 
