510 Journal of the Department of Agriculture. 



considerably among tliemselves in points of detail. Dr. C. C. Ycung, 

 of America, maintains that all karaknl slieep are descended from 

 the black danadar, a long-tailed sheep, and the original fur-bearing 

 stock of Central Asia. These danadars, crossed with fat-rumped 

 slieep, give rise to the fat-tailed karakul of to-day. As the question 

 is not one which concerns us in this article, nothing further need be 

 said on the subject, except that, as indicated above, the karakul was 

 originally a "made" sheep, i.e. brought into existence by crossing 

 existing breeds. 



Conditions in Bokhara. 



The desert regions in the native home of these sheep are 

 *" exceedingly barren, and consist of sand-dunes and saline steppes 

 which support a thorny shrub {HaJoa-ylon ammodendron,, Bungl), 

 and where there is no drifting sand and the soil is clayey in nature, a 

 little grass in spring. During the summer it is very hot and there 

 is very little rain, while in winter the temperature falls below zero. 

 Under such trying climatic extremes it is little wonder that the 

 karakul sheep have earned the reputation of being perhaps the hardiest 

 of all domesticated animals." Duststorms in summer and snowstorms 

 iij Avinter are frequent, and, altogether, the conditions are such as 

 would require an animal of exceptional hardiness to exist under them. 

 In some respects tlie conditions which pertain in the Karroo and other 

 areas of the Union and of South-West Africa are not greatly unlike 

 those of their native land. 



The KAJtAKUL Sheep Industry in Bokhara. 



* " The karakul sheep industry centres in the foothills of the 

 mountains tliat form the southern bmuidary of Bokhara, the cultivated 

 land in the valleys being utilized for gardens and orchards. The 

 flocks are driven in the autumn, when the first snow falls, from their 

 summer quarters on the high plateaux into the ' kislilaks ' of the 

 valleys. They are kept there until tJie lambing season is past, and 

 in early spring thej^ are driven back to the higher desert grazings 

 which are unsuited to cultivation. The sheep are always kept in the 

 open, and during winter more or less protected from the cold winds 

 . in the hollow of the mountains, and live mostly on dry stalks kept 

 clear of snow by the wind, 



" The lambing season is regulated by tying rags round the belly 

 of the ram, and is timed for the best part of the year, when food is 

 most plentiful. The lambs are weaned in midsummer, but the ewes 

 are kept in mill< \uitil the late autumn, and a cheese, described as 

 the ' pride of Southern Asiatic Russia ' is made from it. The natives 

 of Bokhara chiim tliat the milk from karakul sheep is the richest 

 and the most nourishing obtained from any living animal. It is 

 also supposed to liave properties which tend to cure tuberculosis. 



t " Good fur-producing karakuls are found only in very limited 

 numbers and on certain ranches owned by Bokhara noblemen, who. 



* Prof. R. Wallace in "Transactions of the Tliird International Congress of Tropical 

 Agriculture." 



t Quoted from an article on karakul sheep by Prof. Robert Wallace in "Transactions 

 of the Third International Congress of Tropical Agriculture." 



