The
Journal of Heredity
By American Genetic Association
Published by American breeders association [etc.]
1910, 1914
Origin of
Karakul Sheep
Black Danadar the
Original Fur-bearing Stock of Central Asia —
This Crossed with
White, Fine-wool Afghan Sheep Produced the Gray
Danadar Which in Turn
Crossed with Fatrump Sheep Produced the Small
Arabi or Karakul
Breed — Industry in Turkestan Being Ruined
by Natives.
DR. C. C. Young
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
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Sokoliev (both longtails)
are also descended from it. The Luk-Nakbo breed
of Tibet2 is also closely related to the black
Danadar; so is the black Gadik of Afghanistan,
some few of which are still found between
Mazar-i- Sherif and Kabul. I financed an
expedition to Afghanistan this spring and hoped
to get photographs illustrating the rare and
valuable breeds of that region, as some
supposedly trusted Turkmen
living in Afghanistan near the Bukharin border
town of Kerki on the Amur river had obligated
themselves to bring two ewes and two rams
(Gadiks) to Kerki,
where they were to be turned over to the
governor, who promised to ship them on camels to
Karshi, where I patiently awaited them. Alas! as
there are no honest Turkmen
on earth, I lost my money.
As foreigners are forbidden
entrance to the military towns of Kushk, Takhti-
bazar, Kerki,
Kilif, Termez and Sarai, on the northern border
of Afghanistan, and as I could not get a Russian
passport (to which my birth entitles me) without
sacrificing my American citizenship, I was again
forbidden entrance to those cities, which hold so
much of interest to the traveler as well as the
sheepman. I did indeed risk arrest for espionage
by visiting Kerki,
where I obtained an excellent Karakul ram. I was
conveyed from Karshi to Kerki
in an American Ford automobile, and have some
interesting photographs showing how we were
pulled out of the drifting sand by camels at
several points on the route. Returning, we paid
dear for having forsaken the faithful camel, as
we nearly perished from thirst. The ministry of
foreign affairs having refused me permission to
take any Karakul sheep out of Bokhara for
exportation to the United States this year, I
have started an experimental farm in Bessarabia,
on the estate of Michael Alexevitch Stamatov.
During a campaign of four and one-half months I
secured 66 head of Karakul sheep from the
districts of Karshi, Kerki,
Gissar, Tjarjui, Burdalik and Karakul. As I
explained in a former paper, the few Karakul
sheep in European Russia, which might be secured
for export, are all inbred and most of them
crossed with Afghan blood to such an extent as to
make them worthless. In Bokhara, the Karakul
breeds arc hastening toward extinction, thanks to
the senseless methods of the native breeders, who
kill all good lambs and, besides, continually
infuse finewool blood from Afghanistan. I am
trying to get the Emir of Bokhara to take radical
measures to save the industry, and, with the
backing of the American and British embassies and
Professor Wallace of the University of Edinburgh,
have already won the cordial support of the
governor-general of Turkestan and the Russian
ambassador at New Bokhara. It is highly
desirable, however, that these fur-bearing sheep
should become established on a reasonably large
scale in the United States, by the introduction
of reliable stock.3
*
I wish to express my thanks to His Eminence the
Chambo Jorje, ambassador of the Dalai Lama, who
while visiting the Czar at St. Petersburg kindly
received me and furnished me with much valuable
information about this valuable fur-bearing
member of the black Danadar family.
3 This communication was
forwarded from Karshi, Bokhara, under date of
June 1, 1914, Dr. Young later succeeding in
exporting 28 sheep which are now in quarantine
near Baltimore, Md. —
The Editor.
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