FUR FROM A GERMAN COLONY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 7, 9 January 1915, Page 4

FUR FROM A GERMAN COLONY.

Should German South-West Africa! come under the British flag the caracul fur industry of that colony is likely to prove an asset of incerasiug, value. Caracul sheep, which supply the curly, black caracul or (to use the term) “Persian” lamb, fur, wore first ini-, ported into German South-West Africa, from their native Bokhara in 1907, be-, ing regarded as specially suited to the, sandy, soil. Since 1900 there has been ( a Government farm for the breeding, of these sheep near Windhoek. Itj is now understood, according to the, information available at the Imperial Institute, that the industry is an established success, the sheep having found on the higher plateau of German Da mai n Land and Namaqua Land climatic conditions not far removed from those of their original habitat. Prices as high as ,C2, or even more are ob-

tallied for an exceptionally good lamb-, skin, but the industry can, it is believed, be carried on at a profit if from Natal and other parts of the Union, of South Africa, where the sheep have, also been successfully introduced, little or no attention seems to have been, paid to the production of “Persian” , lambskins, the sheep being used there ( entirely as a source of wool and mut-. ton. A flock of caracul sheep have,’ however, quite recently been imported into Newfoundland, and the result of the experiment will be awaited with In-j terest. It may be mentioned that Professor Wallace, of Edinburgh, has re-| cently advocated a trial of these sheep| in Great Britain, and a promising experiment has been made with them in Scotland.