45O MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 



lose its fat-tail characteristic when bred in a strange 

 country. The dictum does not hold good when abund- 

 ance of food and sufficient salt is provided to permit of 

 normal development. Apart from the unique combina- 

 tion of desert food-plants which has built up a breed of 

 more than average size and outstanding quality among 

 sheep, the abundant supply of salts has been a guarantee 

 of freedom from internal parasites, which must be re- 

 garded as an important contributory influence. This 

 asserted sudden departure from an ancestral characteristic 

 as a result of the change of environment a phenomenon 

 often observed in connection with the unstable quality of 

 colour in sheep was disproved in relation to the physical 

 form of the sheep by Professor Dr. Julius Kuhn, of Halle, 

 in 1879 at an Agricultural Show in Berlin. He there 

 exhibited Kurdiuk rams which in their second year had 

 large fat rumps, although they had neither been reared 

 in their native country nor on their mothers' milk. When 

 the mothefs were taken from the salt steppes they were 

 found to be mangy all over, and the lambs on birth were 

 immediately removed and raised apart. 



Good fur-producing Karakuls are found only in very 

 limited numbers and on certain ranches owned by Bokhara 

 noblemen, who, however, do not even make an attempt 

 to prevent in-breeding or to secure the elimination from 

 the breeding stock of Afghan blood, which is indicated 

 by the fine downy wool underneath the hairy fleeces. The 

 result is that good sheep and good lamb-furs are steadily 

 decreasing in numbers and are believed to be within 

 measurable distance of extinction. Although the body 

 may be free from any trace of down, evidences of an 

 ancestral dash of the soft-wool breeds may be detected 

 on the tail or about the back of the head in the region 

 of the ears and the belly. 



The late Emir, who died in 1911, had extensive flocks 

 in different parts of his kingdom, and took a keen interest 

 in his sheep, from which he derived a substantial part 

 of his income. He travelled with the yearly products, 

 lamb-skins, wool and hides, under the care of a special 

 minister, to the fair at Nizhni Novgorod, and netted 

 during his last year nearly 2,000,000 roubles. He was 



