234 



The Journal of Heredity 



of the best known dyers of Karakul 

 skins in America. His opinion of these 

 skins is given in the following letter: 



Los Angeles, California, 

 April 20, 1922. 

 Dr. C. C. Young, 

 Los Angeles, California. 

 Dear Sir: 



With reference to the seventeen 

 half-blood Karakul skins brought to us 

 today to be dressed and dyed, we 

 wish to state that $7.00 would be a 

 conservative average price for these 

 skins. 



Considering the fact that they are 

 only half-blood skins makes us realize 

 the great possibilities of your industry. 



Wishing you success. 



Very truly yours, 

 Colburn's Taxidermy Studio, 

 By A. E. Pendl, Mgr. 



Had the Navajo ewes been properly 

 selected, many of the half-blood skins 

 would have brought $10.00 instead of 

 $7.00. With two lambings yearly one 

 can figure out the great advantage of 

 raising sheep for the production of 

 Persian Lamb. There are no losses as 

 the skins of the dead lambs have the 

 same value as of those killed, and in a 

 large measure that applies to the skins 

 of the slunks, which have been known 

 to be worth as much as $20.00 per 

 skin, and are known in this country 

 under the trade names of "Unborn 

 Lamb," "Baby Lamb," and "Broad- 

 tail." 



Several Colorado breeders have tried 

 raising Karakul sheep and the results 

 are most gratifying. Some two years 

 ago Mrs. M. J. Hoff procured a small 

 flock of Karakuls and last summer she 

 purchased a very fine Karakul ram 

 having convinced herself that her 

 mountain ranch at Bendemeer is ideally 

 adapted for the raising of Karakul fur. 

 She has invested $65,000 in Karakul 

 sheep, and today is part owner of the 

 flock that includes some of the choicest 

 rams ever raised in this country. 



The United States Department of 

 Agriculture states that we require 

 millions of dollars worth of Karakul 

 lamb skins annually, and there is a 

 further demand in Canada. In spite 



of the war, seven different Govern- 

 ments have reports of tests made 

 during several years with rams fur- 

 nished by the author. Owing to the 

 high price of the best Karakul rams, 

 Mrs. Hoff proposes to let them out on a 

 division basis of the increase, where 

 breeders possess the required pasture 

 and the necessary coarse wooled ewes. 



A HYBRID BREED 



The natives of Bokhara, who have 

 had a monopoly on the Karakul indus- 

 try, cross-breed and in-breed, and 

 have for many years been killing 

 their best lambs on account of the 

 high price commanded by their pelts. 

 It is therefore an extremely difficult 

 matter to obtain any great number of 

 high grade Karakul rams. Out of 

 thirty-one imported bucks only four 

 produced lambs with tight curls. An 

 effort is now being made to breed 

 more high grade rams by employing 

 Karakul ewes not related to our best 

 rams and crossing them to bucks 

 which have been secured from certain 

 flocks that were composed of inferior 

 Karakuls. It appears that occasionally 

 atavism will play pranks in a flock 

 from which one would hardly expect 

 anything but open-curled lambs, on 

 account of the tremendous amount of 

 fine Afghan under- wool. Fortunately, 

 the four good rams above mentioned 

 can hardly be related, for they were 

 selected in various sections of the des- 

 ert, at a great distance from each 

 other. 



The Karakul possesses the blood of 

 every breed of Central Asian sheep, 

 as is proved by the great anatomical 

 differences found. However they only 

 produce offspring with black, lustrous, 

 tight curls when they are free from 

 fine wool admixture, and have enough 

 of the extinct Danadar strain in them. 

 The Danadar, the original black fur 

 sheep of Central Asia, became extinct 

 some eighty years ago, but what little 

 of the strain is left in some of the native 

 sheep of Bokhara has cost us millions 

 of dollars annually. It is very con- 

 fusing that some of the Russian 

 Agricultural Societies, which imported 



