236 



The Journal of Heredity 



closed and give them their pipe-like 

 appearance. 



After the convention the author 

 proceeded to Bokhara and before 

 leaving old Bokhara City discovered 

 that the Russian Agricultural Societies 

 had not shown great judgment in 

 buying their rams, ha\'ing failed to get 

 them from districts sufficiently sepa- 

 rated to insure their being of distinct 

 strains. Therefore, a costly expedition 

 into the heart of the Kara-Kum Desert 

 was necessary to procure desirable 

 breeding stock. Fortunately this was 

 done in 1913 and 1914, just before the 

 war, which would have made a later 

 expedition impossible. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BREED 



It must now be evident to the 

 reader why the author has always 

 objected to the formation of a Karakul 

 Association in the United States, and 

 has never failed to ridicule any breeder 

 who considered his sheep in the light of 

 pure-bred Karakuls and talked of them 

 as being registered. 



Last year Dr. Harry Laughlin of the 

 Carnegie Institute, and a professor of 

 Princeton University, who is an author- 

 ity on histology, visited the author's 

 ranch in California. After discussing 

 the subject of registering Karakul 

 sheep with these gentlemen, and ex- 

 plaining to them that the only test 

 of the quality of a ram is his ability to 

 sire lambs having tight curls, they 

 agreed that only those rams should 

 be registered that produced such lambs 

 in the first cross when bred with 

 domestic ewes. Furthermore they ad- 

 vised that only such Karakul ewes 

 should be registered as produced tight 

 curls on their lambs in the first cross 

 with domestic coarse wooled bucks, 

 free from fine wool admixture. No 



Karakul should be registered that 

 produced, when properly crossed, open 

 curls (Astrakhan fur). Since this 

 fur has gone up considerably in price, 

 there would be no objection to the 

 formation of a separate Astrakhan 

 registry. 



Tight curl producing Karakuls 

 should be registered under Categories 

 "A," "B," and "C," and the tests 

 should be conducted by a committee 

 composed of the most reliable Karakul 

 breeders, assisted by furriers. 



The author has discussed this matter 

 with Mr. Tomlinson, Secretary of the 

 American National Live Stock Associa- 

 tion, who strongly favors calling a. 

 meeting of all Karakul sheep breeders 

 with a view of forming an association. 

 He believes such action is desirable, 

 in order to give every breeder who has 

 desirable rams a chance of recognition, 

 and to bring about harmony and the 

 right kind of cooperation within the 

 industry. Only by exchanging the very 

 limited number of high grade Karakul 

 rams in this country, and eliminating 

 fine wool, can the Karakul breeders 

 expect to build up a big industry. 



It is a pleasure to announce that 

 Mrs. M. J. Hoff has agreed to finance 

 the "Karakul Breeder" a monthly 

 paper which should make its appear- 

 ance in November. It begins to 

 look as if the industry for which the 

 pioneer breeders of fur sheep in this 

 country have labored so hard, will 

 finally be placed on a sound basis. 



In conclusion it is worthy of note 

 that no longer can Bokhara claim a 

 monopoly of the Karakul industry, 

 as the Bolsheviks have devoured prac- 

 tically all of the sheep of that country, 

 and unless America saves the day, the 

 raising of Persian Lamb and Astrakhan 

 fur will be an industry of the past. 



