Young: Karakul Sheep Breeding 



^3S 



A BROADTAIL KARAKUL 



Figure 16. The Karakul is not a pure breed, in fact only 4 of the 31 imported bucks pro- 

 duced offspring with the desired tight curls. The natives of the Kara-Kum region have no concep- 

 tion of selective breeding, and these sheep are crossed with every breed of central Asia. Note the 

 differences between the lamb shown above and the one shown in Fig. 15. Particularly striking are 

 the differences in their tails, this lamb evidently being partly of broadtail ancestry. Tightness of 

 curl is greatest at birth and begins to become less after two or three days. The time and the 

 extent to which this takes place varies with different animals, and at an age of one month this 

 jamb still has remarkably tight curls. (See text, p. 231.) 



a few hundred Karakuls into European 

 Russia, jumped at the conclusion 

 that these sheep were full bloods, and 

 issued certificates to that effect, in the 

 few instances where they sold these 

 sheep. This accounts for the fact that 

 the author considered the first nineteen 

 sheep brought to this country by him 

 in 1908, to be pure blooded Karakuls. 

 At that time it was hard to account 

 for the fact that there was no semblance 

 of anatomical similarity, and great 

 differences in the wool of the sheep. 



In 1912, at the Sheep Congress of 

 Moscow, where the author purchased 

 another flock of Karakuls, elaborate 

 certificates were still issued with the 

 sheep that were sold, stating that 

 they were pure-bred Karakuls. Fortu- 

 nately the author had already learned 

 that only tested Karakul rams, free 



from fine wool admixture, would pro- 

 duce lambs with tight curls when 

 bred to the coarsest wooled ewes. 

 After the results of my tests in the 

 United States were placed before the 

 convention a resolution was adopted 

 to the effect that Karakul sheep 

 should not be considered pure-bred, 

 that fine wool must be eliminated, 

 and that a ram must prove his ability 

 to sire lambs with tight curled wool 

 before he could be considered a full- 

 blood sheep. Several of the breeders 

 agreed with me that the tight curls 

 could be produced in the first cross, 

 but none of them knew the reason why. 

 Not a single breeder present realized 

 the destructive effect upon tightness of 

 curl of fine wool, which lacks the 

 required stiffness to hold the curls 



