MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 



flocks. [From StamatofFs description of the breed, trans- 

 lated by Dr. Young, much valuable information has been 

 borrowed for this paper. We have also to acknowledge 

 indebtedness to Ernest Poland (of P. R. Poland and Son, 

 London), to the English translation of the excellent 

 monograph, "300 Years Thorer Family, 50 Years 

 Theodor Thorer," by the present head of the house, Paul 

 Albert Thorer, Royal Saxon Councillor of Commerce, and 

 also to Dr. Young himself, who in 1909 inspired us with 

 an interest in the subject which has never flagged, and who 

 was again in Bokhara in 1912, 1913, and 1914.] 



In 1911 Dr. Young's flock had increased to fifty-six 

 in number, and eventually the Karakul Sheep Company 

 was formed to take them over. Pure-bred Karakul rams 

 were bred to a number of high-grade long-wools, in- 

 cluding Lincolns and Cotswolds, as well as close-woolled 

 Merinos and Downs. The long-wool results proved so 

 satisfactory, and especially the Lincoln cross, that 1,000 

 high-grade Lincoln ewes were secured and bred to Kara- 

 kul rams in 1912. A second importation, consisting of 

 eleven rams and six ewes, arrived in quarantine at Balti- 

 more in March, 1913; one valuable ram died in quarantine, 

 which left rams of only seven unrelated high-class blood 

 lines in America. Five of the rams were bred to 400 

 Lincoln, Highland Blackface, Leicester, and other long- 

 wool ewes, including a few Karakul ewes, but the results 

 of these tests have not been made public. 11 



Owing to the interest taken at the time, 1911, by 

 ex-President Taft and ex-Secretary James Wilson in the 

 new American industry, the United States Bureau of 

 Animal Industry conducted experiments by crossing a 

 selected Karakul ram with ewes of the Barbado breed 

 (a cross from the Barbary). 



11 Since the foregoing was written Dr. Young succeeded in 

 getting out in the end of July, 1014, another specially selected lot 

 of about the same number as the first lot of sheep exported, in 

 spite of the existing embargo upon foreigners entering the military 

 zone of Bokhara. They left Libau by the last steamer for New 

 York before the outbreak of War, but six rams were lost through 

 an outbreak of fire in the quarantine station in the spring of 



