SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



421 



two years that I have been here, I know of but two instances of their having attacked young 

 stray cattle by night. By clay, sheop are perfectly safe; and T should presume that every 

 {^ood sheep-master would have his Hocks, for inspection, home at night, when any common 

 fence will be an ample saleguard for them." 



To recur, for a moment, to Mr. Buckley's statements in relation to the 

 Roan and some of the contiguous mountains in North Carolina — if wo 

 concede all his positions to be correct — it hut proves that they are excep- 

 tions to a general rule. But a review of his facts, it seems to me, scarcely 

 justifies his conclusions. 



The vegetation which seemed so backward to him, coming from the 

 warmer climate of Alabama and Lower Tennessee, was in fact but little, 

 if any, later than that of the elevated grazing lands of Southern New- 

 York. The following table* will show the average forwardness of the 

 seasons at the location of fifty-eight Acadc^mies, scattered over New-York, 

 for a term of fifteen years. And these Academies, as would be supposed, 

 are rarely found on the high lileak hills. In fact, the number in the south- 

 ern graaing region is but small, and they are mostly on the low bottoms of 

 the larger streams. The same remark will also apply to the high region 

 between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain, 



TABLE NO. 5. 



The blossoming of the apple tree in the grazing regions of New-York 

 takes place when the leaves of the forest trees are considerably less than 

 half grown, as INIr. B. found them on the " high mountain trees" of North 

 Carolina on the 12th of May. 



Snow storms sometimes occur in New- York as late as the one recorded 

 by Mr. B. on the Roan ; cold, damp fogs are not found destructive to 

 sheep in some parts of England and Scotland, where they prevail 2:)roba- 

 bly quite as much as on these mountains ; and there are many parts of the 

 grazing region of New-Y^ork, and good grazing lands, too, where the in- 

 habitants " do not raise corn sufficient for their own consumption." As 

 Mr. B. gives neither the dates nor the altitudes of his own thermometrical 

 observations, no conclusions can be deduced from them. Speaking of the 

 region about Asheville, the more definite statement is made by him, that 

 during the summer of 1S42, the thermometer ranged generally from 70 to 

 85 degrees, (which he pronounces not much, if any, warmer than Western 

 New-York,) "while on the mountains it was frequently about 60 degrees, 

 and sometimes much lower." If hy frrqtient, he meant ordinary temper- 

 ature, the summer climate of these lofty mountains much resembles that 

 of New-York in June — usually considered the month of the pleasantest 



* lliis table was prepared by James H. Coffin, a tutor in Williams College, from the Report of these 

 facts annually required to be made by the .Academies to the Regents of the Univer.iity. This and some 

 other tables and statements of Mr. C.'s, which I shall have occasion to quote, appear in a very able paper 

 from him on the Climate and Temperature of New-York, in the forthcoming volume on Agriculture, in 

 the Natural History of the Stite : some sheets of which have been politely sent me by Doct. Emmons, the 

 8uite Geologist, who has that volume in chaige. 

 (853) 



