Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Success Of Agriculture Depends On The
Dryness Of The Air; On The Rains Distributed Through Different
Seasons, Or Accumulated
In one season; on winds blowing constantly
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
temperature of the whole year than on the distribution of the same
quantity of heat through 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 latitude of 69 degrees, in regions
where the mean heat is from 22 to-2 degrees, in every place where
the temperature of summer is above 9 or 10 degrees. We know the
minimum of heat requisite to ripen wheat, barley, and oats; but we
are less certain in respect to the maximum which these species of
grain, accommodating as they are, can support. We are even ignorant
of all the circumstances which favour the culture of corn within
the tropics at very small heights. La Victoria and the neighbouring
village of San Mateo yield an annual produce of four thousand
quintals of wheat. It is sown in the month of December, and the
harvest is reaped on the seventieth or seventy-fifth day. The grain
is large, white, and abounding in gluten; its pellicle is thinner
and not so hard as that of the wheat of the very cold table-lands
of Mexico.
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