430 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



sheep at the Njombe farm. Sheep were imported from Kenya, Eng- 

 land, and South Africa, but the experiment proved a failure, and 

 research is apparendy now at a standstill. Proposals made by 

 Europeans to try both woolled and haired sheep in the Northern 

 Provinces are receiving attention. In the southern highlands 

 sheep farming is impossible owing to a combination of soil poverty 

 and helminth parasitism. (Tanganyika, Veterinary, 1935 and 

 1936, D.R.) 



In the French territories more attention has been given to sheep 

 than to cattle or other stock. Australian and South African merinos, 

 Karakal and several French breeds have been introduced. In 

 the wool-producing districts half-bred merino rams are distributed 

 free to native breeders from whose herds ewes have been selected 

 for crossing, and several government and state-aided companies 

 are carrying on trials on a large scale. For example, work at the 

 government animal farm at El-Oualadji in the French Sudan is 

 confined entirely to the grading up of native breeds of horses, 

 cattle, and sheep. Merinos have been used here with great suc- 

 cess. Again, the Dire Company has established a flock of merinos, 

 now numbering some 2,000 to use the grasslands behind their irri- 

 gated concession area near Goundam. Merinos have been crossed 

 with native sheep to produce half, three-quarters and seven- 

 eighths merino. The half-breeds have proved to be most resistant 

 to disease. 



In the pastoral areas of the Belgian Congo, to the north-east and 

 south-east of the country, sheep are scattered everywhere, and 

 certain native races have already attained considerable importance 

 as a result of selection or crossing with imported breeds. In parts 

 of Uele the Sudan type of hornless haired sheep with fat tails have 

 been developed by certain missions, but the chief efforts in improve- 

 ment are at the Nioka Government farm in Ituri, where large 

 flocks of merinos and Romney Marsh are naturalized. Native 

 mutton is mediocre in quality, but that produced by cross-breed- 

 ing with sheep from Nioka is much better. The mortality among 

 sheep at Nioka is very high, and is chiefly due to helminthiasis. 

 The changeable weather also causes the death of many lambs. 

 In the western parts of the Belgian Congo, where native sheep 

 are relatively few, and are scattered among the cattle in small 



