432 



The Journal of Heredity 



one Shiraz to this country and I am 

 asking myself today why I wasted my 

 money on him, as the gray skins pro- 

 duced' by these pecuHar accidents of 

 atavism are ahnost invariably with 

 open curls and therefore can easily 

 be imitated by kid skins, which the fur- 

 rier can buy for fifty cents apiece. 



I have decided that the proper thing 

 for the American breeder to do is to 

 call all Central Asiatic sheep of the 

 general ty{)e that I have brought to 

 the United States Karakuls and to for- 

 get about everything else, as it is most 

 confusing. It suffices to tell a novice 

 that Karakuls are of various sizes and 

 are not bred with a view of attaining 

 uniformity of type, unless one is 

 breeding them for mutton purposes ; 

 that the only thing that really counts 

 is tightness of curl, and that all 

 rams that fail to sire lambs with such 

 curls in the first or second cross should 

 be eliminated. 



I have asked many specialists what 

 caused the tight curl in the Karakul, or 

 of the Negro in the genus Homo. Some 

 thought it was due to keratin, which 



is more abundant in the coarser 

 wooled breeds than is the case in the 

 finewools. That keratin gives us a 

 certain stififness, which causes the curl 

 to remain closed, is possible. I know 

 from numerous tests made by Pro- 

 fessor Wallace of Edinburgh, Simon- 

 son, myself and others, that the Merino 

 and Ranibouilette will not give us even 

 a semblance of tight curl formation in 

 the first cross, in fact not even in the 

 second cross, while certain coarse wools 

 have often given us beautiful tight 

 curls in the first cross. I would like 

 to refer the reader to the bulletin is- 

 sued by Professor Wallace which ap- 

 peared in the Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture, August, 1915, which is 

 printed under the authority of His 

 Majesty's Stationery Office. Both rams 

 mentioned were furnished by myself. 

 Rut if keratin is the "Hauptgrund" 

 then why does the wild Argali lamb, or 

 some of the fatrump lambs of Central 

 Asia, that have a coarser fleece than 

 the best Karakuls, not come with tight 

 curls? The same may be said of thf- 

 Rockv ^fountain sheep. 



Errata 



HuxLE^•. Julian. Glands and De- 

 velopment. Vol. XHI, Pages 351 and 

 353. The statement under Figures 8 

 and 9 that thyroid extract or iodine 

 produces metamorphosis in axolotls is 

 an editorial error. In the fourth line 

 under Figure S the words iodine or 

 should be deleted. In the first line 

 under Figure 9. for Iodine, read 

 Thyroid. 



Dunn, Schneider and Webb, hi- 



lieritance of Spotting in Holstein Cat- 

 tle. Vol. XIV. Page 23G. Thirteen 

 lines from top of left-hand column, 

 change 555.4 to read 455.4. 



Garber and Quisenberry. Origin 

 of False Wild Oats. Vol. XIV. Page 

 270. Fourth line under Figure 10, 

 change Az'ena niida to read Avefia 

 fatna. On ]mge 2(58, five lines from 

 bottom of left-hand column, read 

 seeond generation. 



