518 Journal of the Department of Agriculture. 



"broad tail" or premature skins so highly prized by furriers. The 

 corrugations aud smooth, partially developed curls give an appear- 

 ance of "shot" or "watered" silk to the pelt. Imitations of this 

 type of fur are very numerous; in fact, most of the so-calied astrakhan 

 fur coats worn are imitations of these pelts (see Plate 6). TJudesir- 

 abie pelts all carry hair of quite a difterent quality and gloss to tnat 

 just described. The quality is much harsher, and even if the curl is 

 good the lustre is very inferior. Good quality of hair always gives 

 a blue-black lustre like that seen on a black horse still wet from being 

 washed, while bad quality hair gives a reddish-black lustre, or is 

 dull. As lustre cannot be imparted to the fur by any artificial means, 

 the value of the pelt depends largely upon it. 



The most undesirable curl is that known as the "nigger" (see 

 Plate 7). Here the curls are found like those on the head of a 

 kaffir. The tips of the hairs are always exposed, giving the pelt a 

 ragged, fuzzy appearance, and the lustre is very poor. Finally there 

 is a curl which occurs in both the qualities of hair mentioned above. 

 This curl is knoAvn as the " corkscrew " (Plate 8), and is much 

 like that instrument in appearance if one imagines it compressed 

 from above downwards. This curl has also been likened to a burr- 

 clover seed-pod, and that term was used in the description of the 

 1916 lambs at Grootfontein. It has now beeu discarded for "the term 

 corkscrew. As the result of observations extending over four years 

 the following classification of lambs, according to their pelts, has been 

 evolved. Lambs having the qualfty of hair described as occurring 

 in desirable pelts are classified as belonging to the Type " ,4," and 

 arc then divided into classes, Al, A2, x\3, and A4, depending upon 

 the tightness of the curl, its evenness of distribution over the body 

 of the lamb, the lustre of the pelt, and its freeness from raggedness. 

 "Watered silk" lambs are classed as above, but the letters " Ws " 

 are added to indicate their nature. Tyiyc " B " includes all lambs 

 with the wrong quality of hair described under "undesirable pelts." 

 This quality of hair is always accompanied by a peculiar reddish 

 lustre or by dullness. Classes Bl, B2, B3, B4 are recognized as in 

 A, for it is quite possible for a lamb of this type to have very definite 

 pipe or waluut curls; in fact, the tightest-curled lambs got usually 

 belong to this type, but the quality of the hair is undesirable, and 

 tlie lustre is poor, and the pelts are consequently of much less value 

 as furs. 



Up to the present it bas been customary in the South- West 

 Protectorate flock to use type C and even D. 



Tyjye C is used for lambs having pelts in which Ihe predominating 

 curl is corkscrew, but as many of these lambs have hair of the A 

 quality and others of B quality, it would seem that this type C 

 might well be done away with, and the presence of the corkscrew curl 

 indicated by the adding of the letters " Cs " to the letter indicating the 

 type in which the corkscrew appears, thus 3ACs would indicate that 

 the corkscrew is present but that the hair was of the A type. After 

 all, A and B types refer to quality of hair and lush^e and not to curl, 

 and the corkscrew is only a kind of curl and often the result of mating 

 two good sheep of A type, when, if the resulting lamb is too long- 

 haired it either has very open curls, or, if much curl is present, it 

 takes the form of a corkscrew. 



Type I) has also occasionally been used in the South-West Protec- 

 torate cl'assifications, but no good purpose can be served by retaijiing it. 



