Young: Breeding Karakul Sheep 



177 



out of Bokhara in the past few years 

 were, without exception, taken from 

 settlements near the railway stations of 

 Tjardjui, Kara-Kul and Bokhara City, 

 where the chances of inbreeding are 

 great. Practically all of the Karakuls 

 were gotten out by representatives of 

 Russian agricultural societies, to whom 

 it did not seem to matter how many 

 good, unrelated animals they could get 

 for the meagre sum advanced them, but 

 what number they could bring back in 

 total, good, bad or indifferent, no matter 

 whether inbred or not. Their chief 

 anxiety seemed to be to avoid the re- 

 proaches of their fellow members, each 

 of whom wanted some sheep ; and unfor- 

 tunately, these fellow members, although 

 much nearer to Bokhara than our 

 breeders, have nevertheless, just about 

 as hazy an idea of the expense and difh- 

 culties to be overcome in the Kara-Kum 

 desert as the average American sheep 

 raiser of our Eastern states has. 



difficulties of travel. 



It is one thing to buy a few sheep in 

 the oases close to the railroad, where one 

 does not have to carry water, and quite 

 another when it comes to fitting up a 

 costly caravan and undertaking trips 

 into the interior for hundreds of miles, 

 carrying numberless burdiuks (water 

 sacks), provisions, ammunition, bedding, 

 utensils, and employing rather expensive 

 subordinate officials, who can make a 

 native sell one the sheep he desires, pro- 

 viding one is fortunate enough to know a 

 good Karakul when he sees one. I have 

 seen practically every sheep that has 

 been gotten out of Bokhara into Euro- 

 pean Russia, and the good animals 

 represent a negligible quantity indeed. 

 When I was asked to separate the largest 

 herd in European Russia, numbering 

 nearly three thousand, I found 112 head 

 among them that were more or less free 

 from fine wool ; but they were too closely 

 inbred, which makes the wool fibre very 

 fine, resulting in a cheap, open-curled, 

 instead of tight-curled, high-priced skin. 

 From this, it must be evident that 

 European Russia at present is hardly the 

 proper place to buy unrelated breeding 

 animals, and as for those few Karakiils 

 that have been gotten into Germany and 



Austria, I am sorry to say that they do 

 not even deserve mentioning. 



It is the practice of the Russian socie- 

 ties to raffle off all specimens imported, 

 which makes it impossible for their 

 members to put even a short distance 

 between one ram and another. In fair- 

 ness, however, I must state that last 

 year Messrs. Karpoff and Ganko made 

 the first effort really worth mentioning, 

 when they went as far as to the steppes 

 Djom-Boss in the district of Kerki, 

 some 200 miles from Tjardjui, and 

 brought out quite a flock; but most of 

 them had the undesirable short under- 

 wool and again, they were raffled off 

 amongst the members of the Poltava 

 Agricultural Society. I was surprised 

 when I found that practically none of 

 Russia's breeders understood the dan- 

 ger due to the presence of fine wool. 



In Mr. Ganko's excellent report, 

 delivered to the Russian Sheep Congress 

 at Moscow last October, which I 

 attended, no mention was made of this 

 all important fact until I reported the 

 result of my tests with finewool Ameri- 

 can sheep. 



hindrances to foreigners. 



Providing a Russian subject can secure 

 permission from the Russian Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and the Depart- 

 ment of Foreign Affairs gives its con- 

 sent, and providing his majesty the 

 emir permits him to enter the Khanate, 

 it is only a matter of being properly 

 financed, and a limited number of Kara- 

 kuls can be obtained, although, after 

 all, the proper Jigit (an official of the 

 district governor, who can do what he 

 pleases with his subjects) is indispen- 

 sable. 



A foreigner can not get out Karakiil 

 sheep for the following reasons: (1) 

 Even after securing permission from the 

 Russian war minister to enter west 

 Turkestan, which often means weeks of 

 delay in St. Petersburg, he is not per- 

 mitted to go very far away from the 

 railway station, and he absolutely can 

 not go to Takta Bazar, Kushk, Kerki, 

 Termez or Karshi. 



(2) The emir does not permit a 

 foreigner to export Karakul sheep, and 

 should he get them into European 



