586 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
generally between 60° and 65° F., and summer mean temperatures
between 70° and 75° F., while the rainfall is over 50 inches at least.
In these districts, at an altitude varying from 1,500 or 1,800 feet to
2,500 feet, has been concentrated within recent years about 70 per
cent of the Brazilian coffee industry, which now provides about two-
thirds of the world's supply. But the rapid development of coffee-
planting in this region, largely by means of imported Italian labour,
has not been without its drawbacks. On the one hand, there
has been the neglect of various crops for which the country is
suitable, and, on the oilier, there has been over-production of
coffee to such an extent that the government of Sao Paulo has
been compelled, in years of abundant crop, to buy and withhold
from sale, or to destroy, no inconsiderable part of the 0 output, in
order to prevent too great a depression of price on the world's
markets. This policy, the cost of which is met by an export
duty on coffee, has had varying success, but although on occasion"
it was unavoidable if the planters were not to be ruined, it has failed
to discourage planting or to encourage, until lately, the cultivation
of other crops.

During the American Civil War cotton was extensively grown
in Sao Paulo. After that its cultivation was neglected until the
decline in the price of coffee led to new attempts being made to
grow it on a large scale. These attempts have apparently been
successful, and within the last few years Sao Paulo has become an
important cotton-growing area; in 1938 it produced just one-half
of the Brazilian crop. Maize, rice, and beans—the principal food-
crops—are also more extensively cultivated than in pre-war days;
sugar-cane grows well on lands abandoned by coffee.

The town of Sao Paulo, situated on the route from the coast
to the plateau, is the centre of an important industrial region
which has of recent years made rapid progress. In addition
to cotton, silk, clothing, leather, and food-stuffs, machinery em-
ployed in the preparation of coffee is manufactured on a con-
siderable scale.

THE TEMPERATE SOUTH. Climatic conditions, more temperate
than farther north, mark off the country south of the state of S&Q
Paulo as a separate region. On the upland the annual range is
from about 55° F. to about 70° F., while the rainfall, which exceeds
60 inches over the greater part of the region, is fairly evenly