452 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 



outside the natural districts the characteristics were 

 gradually lost with the second, third, and fourth lambs; 

 and it was therefore considered doubtful if the valuable 

 qualities of the fur could be maintained in the case of 

 lambs bred in Europe and America. This opinion was 

 probably the result of imperfect observation, as Asia 

 contains many sheep which do not possess the char- 

 acteristics peculiar to the Karakul and which may have 

 provided the sires of later lambs. 



There are instances on record of more or less suc- 

 cessful breeding of Karakul sheep for their lamb-fur in 

 all the great Continents. About fifteen years ago Dr. 

 J. V. Sinitzen, the greatest Russian authority on Kara- 

 kuls, imported the first flock of them into the Crimea, 

 and they have done well. Councillor Paul Thorer, senior 

 partner of Theodore Thorer, one of the largest and oldest 

 of the fur merchants of Leipzig, was one of the first 

 professional experts to follow him and visit Bucharest, 

 which he did in 1902. On his return Thorer enlisted the 

 interest of King Frederic of Saxony and lectured on the 

 possible advantage of the propagation of Karakul sheep 

 in German colonies. The idea was taken up by the 

 Director of the Agricultural Institute at Halle, his Excel- 

 lency Privy Councillor Kiihn. In 1903 four rams and 

 twenty-six ewes of what were believed to be pure Karakuls 

 were secured from Bokhara and sent to Kiihn's farm at 

 Lindchen in the Mark of Brandenburg, while two years 

 later another small lot was obtained. Experiments 

 proved that " at least no deterioration in quality could 

 be shown to exist in the lambs born of the original im- 

 ported sheep." The common opinion that the Karakul 

 lamb suitable for the fur trade could only be produced 

 in its native country was thus rather severely shaken. 

 Some German landowners subsequently made an attempt 

 to breed Karakuls for fur, but the high cost of feeding 

 is a serious drawback to development. It is, moreover, 

 to be feared that the sheep imported had not been selected 

 with a view to the complete exclusion of fine wool, for 

 Dr. C. C. Young reported in 1912 that he " examined 

 sixty ewes descending from Thorer's flock and only found 

 three of them void of the fatal down-like ' underwool.' ' 



