SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 423 



Ararat the common vegetables of Armenia; half way up, those of Italy and France; and 

 upon tiip summit, those of Scandinavia. Forster saw several Alpine plants upon the moun- 

 tains of Tcna del Fuego."' 



Mr. Muilic also remarks : 



" If we take each mountain as the index of its own meridian, we shall find that each ono 

 expresses, by ita vegetation, all the vjirieties of chmate between it and the pole."* 



Humboltlt, and our own Doct. Forry, notice an equally striking develop- 

 ment of this law, on the Western Continent.! 



This would go to show what I have little doubt is the fact, (my impres- 

 sions, too, being strengthened by a comparison of latitude, elevation, and 

 recorded thermonietrical observations,) that on the sides of the Roan and 

 other lofty mountains of North Carolina, and pretty well vj^ on their sides, 

 too, the climate is not greatly dissimilar from that on the high grazing 

 lands of New- York and New-England. On the sweetest and liest of the 

 latter, white clover always comes up spontaneously, and will immediately 

 re-sward any field thrown out of tillage. It sometimes flourishes on soils 

 of ordinary fertility, but never on rery sour or boggy ones, or on those 

 the poachy character of which would render them liable to communicate 

 hoof-rot '-»r other diseases. It indicates, most decidedly, both a soil and 

 climate fitted for sheep. 



You will not understand. Sir, of covirse, that in the remarks made and 

 facts stated, at so great length, in relation to three or four mountains, my 

 object has been simply to refute the riews of Mr. Buckley in relation to 

 them. In a region of 70,000 square miles, the unadaptation of half a 

 dozen mountains, or a much greater number, to this or any other branch 

 of husbandry, would be of but little comparative importance. Anticipat- 

 ing, however, the croakings of the timid — the exaggerated counter state- 

 ments of those rash and sanguine men who are ever ready to rush into 

 whatever is neio, without judgment to guide or perseverance to sustain 

 them : who abandon their undertakings at the first obstacle, and apologize 

 for their ficklety by magnifying the difliculties encountered by them : I 

 deemed it expedient to lay before you some useful data for comparisons, 

 (and conclusions.) which will be equally applicable in the case of all our 

 southern mountains. 



The hilly and level regions u'est •f the mountains, and lying between 

 them and the Mississipj)i and Ohio rivers, scarcely require a separate no- 

 tice — particularly after the statements of Mr. Cockrill, given in my second 

 letter. As a whole, they are undoubtedly more fertile, and better adapted 

 to the production of the grasses, than those of con-esponding latitude, in 

 even the hilly zone, east of the mountains. 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.— " The moan temperature of incubation is 100° Fahr. ; 

 it may vaiy from 95^' to 105'^. and toward the close of the process may be suspended for 

 one or two hom-s, or for a Ioniser period, according to the degree of extraneous heat which 

 the eggs may derive from their situation, without fatal consequences to the embiyo." [See 

 Johnson's " Farmers' Encyclopa'dia."] 



* Mudie's World. 



t Since makins; the extract above from Malte Brun, I observo the followinj bettor, or. at Iea.it. more defi- 

 nite exprpBSiion of the same fact by Doct Forry : " In ascendina; a lofty mountain of the torrid zone, the 

 .greatest variety in vcgetatinn i^ di-^played. At its foot and under the burning snn, ananas and plantains 

 flouri.sh ; the reeions of limes and oranues succeeds : then follow fields of maize and lu.\uriant wheat ; and 

 .still higher, the series of plants known in tlie temperate zone. The mountains of temperate regions exhi- 

 bit, perhaps, less variety, but the change is equally striking." See Forry 'a Clima'.c of the United StaUs 

 (855) 



