176 



The Journal of heredity 



demand the best quality of the Persian 

 furs, unless, as already explained, the 

 rams belonging to this class are elimi- 

 nated and the substitutes which give us 

 the best results are chosen from the 

 first mentioned three classes, thus enab- 

 ling us to breed out the obnoxious fine- 

 wool strain, if it exists. 



Karakul-Afghan rams bred to English 

 longwools give us a better fur than when 

 crossed with Karakul-Afghan ewes — in 

 any event the dullness is in a large degree 

 overcome — but unfortunately, the curls 

 are not tight enough, and there is also 

 a lack of uniformity in the size of the 

 curls. The average price of these skins 

 is S3.50. 



The following are the physical charac- 

 teristics of the Duzbai Karakul: A 

 large animal, the size of our Lincolns 

 and even larger; large head, with very 

 convex nose line; long, drooping, pendu- 

 lous ears; some have large horns, others 

 have none; strong, thick feet; immense 

 broad tail, consisting of some eighteen 

 vertebrae. At maturity it has coarse, 

 long, gray wool on body, with coarse, 

 stiff hair, that remains black even after 

 maturity and with absence of fine under 

 wool on head, face, feet and abdomen. 

 At birth the lamb has, for about two 

 weeks, beautiful, lustrous, black curls. 

 It is this breed that the Russian Govern- 

 ment bulletin, issued recently by Kar- 

 poff , mentions most prominently, speak- 

 ing of our work in connection with it. 



THE SMALL ARAB I. 



The physical characteristics of the 

 small Arabi are: It is much smaller 

 than the Duzbai, has thin feet, small 

 head, straight nose line, short erect ears, 

 long, slender, triangular tail, coarse. 



long, gray wool at maturity, with ab- 

 sence of fine undcrwool. At birth lambs 

 come with beautiful, tight, black curls. 

 Occasionally one of these animals re- 

 mains black, even after maturity, and 

 this led me to the discovery of the origin 

 of all the Karakul breeds, which is the 

 black, lustrous Danadar,^ a few of which 

 are still found in Khiva, Bokhara and 

 Thibet, according to native report which 

 I question. 



Sometimes the coarse, hair-like wool, 

 is as fine as that of our Lincolns and has 

 great lustre, but when it lacks lustre it 

 may be easily mistaken for Afghan 

 short, fine wool. The difference in the 

 length, however, always tells the story. 

 So does the microscope. At birth the 

 lambs come with very tight and lus- 

 trous curls. 



The intermediate class is, as its name 

 suggests, a mixture of the characteristics 

 of the Duzbai and Small Arabi. As 

 already mentioned, the Small Arabi is 

 the best of these classes; but as the 

 Duzbai is also highly satisfactory, and 

 when bred to our native sheep gives an 

 increase in weight and greatly improves 

 the mutton qualities, as is shown in 

 Armour's test, it is probably advisable 

 to choose from these animals. 



In selecting breeding animals, the 

 essential thing is to avoid those with 

 short, fine wool, that can be seen at a 

 glance. The coarse, gray, long wool 

 sticks out, and hidden in it is the short, 

 lustreless, fine- wool, from the Afghan 

 sheep, which I believe is the ancestor of 

 the Merino. Generally the fine wool 

 shows on the head, face and abdomen, 

 and is without lustre, and brown, in- 

 stead of black. 



The few flocks that have been gotten 



*That the Karakul breeds have not descended frcjm the Small Arabi, as certain Russian investi- 

 gators state, I am absolutely sure. It was my good luck to find in England a furrier who sold 

 the last Danadar skin 47 years ago, at which time there were no Persian Lamb, Astrakhan or 

 Krimmer furs in the trade. F. N. Petrov, dragoman of the Russian embassy at Bokliara City, 

 secured for mc a gray Danadar skin (produced by a cross between the original black Danadar 

 and the white Afghan fine-wool) and also sent me a photograph, made by him north of Bokhara 

 City near the border of the Khanate of Khiva, and an examination of this skin and photograph 

 will, I believe, convince anyone that my theory of the origin of the Karakul from the black Dana- 

 dar is correct. Mr. Petrov also sent me a ])holograi)h of a supposed l)lack Danadar at the present 

 day; it does not convince me, however, that such an animal still exists. The tail of the sheep 

 photographed, although not typically broad, is not long, as it should be, while the curls of the 

 wool are excessively tight, resembling those of the Small Arabi. On my trip to Turkestan this 

 summer I hope definitely to settle the interesting cjuestion of whctlier the black Danadar yet 

 exists as a breed. 



