632 Journal op the Department of Agriculture. 



and " ^IncPheisoii.'' The rams (.lesceudcd fioiu llio other of the 

 imported rams have eithei been disposed of or havo not uot sons 

 good enough for stud purposes. 



Before hn^ving' the sut),i(Mt of ninliug' somt> nuMition sliould he 

 made of the number of ewes which sliouhl be mated to one ram for 

 any given season. Owing the nature of the work at (Jrootfontein. 

 where there is oidy a small flock, the g-reatest number of ewes united 

 to any ram has usually been between ol) and 40. but in April this year 

 just over 100 ewes were jnit to "Edward." and the tup Morked veiy 

 well indeed, over 80 ewes lambing, and this does not include all the 

 ewes which were in lamb to him as some were sold before lambing at 

 the annual sale of this institution on the 5tli September, " J^dward " 

 was born in 1913. 



VIII. 



TiiK Kauakul as a Mttton Shkkp. 



Huilt as it is to-day llu- kaialcnl is by no means an uleal mutton 

 she(>p, being too flat-rildied, not deep enough in ilu^ chest and heart 

 g'irth. and having rather a small leg for its size. It compares very 

 favourably with any of our native slbH"]). however. The mutton itself 

 is of an excellent quality, being- fine-grained and ha\ing' an excellent 

 taste. It is thought very hig!il> of in iMirop(>. where, indce<l, it is a 

 delicacy. At present the karakul is distinctly snialler than the pure- 

 bred woolled Persian, but the two breeds are so alike in most of their 

 points that there is no dinibt that if it were desired, they could be 

 built up to be quite as large iu every respect. As it is. when grade 

 karakuls and grade woolled Persians are mixed together, it is often 

 veiy difficult to tell them apart. Where a (juick maturing', hardy 

 sheep, dressing a good weight, is required, the karakul presents strong 

 (daims for recognition. (As evidence of their early nniturity the 

 individual weights of ten yearling pure-bred wethers, all still in 

 possession of their milk incisors, are given in pounds. Thev are: 

 90, 88, 87, 95. 84, 95, 82, 60. 100. 85; iotal. ST-J lb., oi- ST'lb. as 

 ail average weight.) These wetliers wei-e run on the veld all their lives 

 after they were a week old. Young pure-bred rams run with them, 

 and of the same age, averageil 9o:[ lb., th.e highest weight being 

 lO-'i lb. As already indicated, the hardiness of this breed, their ability 

 to cover wide areas in searcli of food, the nature of the food they can 

 exist on, antl their resistance to " stekgras," all help to make this 

 claim a very strong one in the arid regions of the X^nion. Again, as 

 well be seen in the section dealing with grade karakuls, even the first 

 ci'oss with such sheep as the jN'amaqna anil black-head Persian results 

 in a considerable increase of weigiit as compared with their dams, 

 at an early age, although in no case are the weights obtained e(]mil 

 to those scaled by the pure-bred karakul of similar age. 



As a mutton sbeep, therefore, the karakul is superi()r to any of 

 our native sheep or to the merino, and, while it does not grow out 

 as big as the woolled Persian, its flesh is of the sanu^ excellent quality. 

 Pov the arid and semi-arid regions of the XTnioii it is difficult to 

 imagine a more suitable sheep, and, besides gaining weight and early 

 maturitv, and in almost all cases hardiness as well, the farmer who 



