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Show . The United States Now Producing the Princely Astrakhan 111 Bokharan . bucks of high w ,j V V?.jW3 . ''T'lu )flM lineage, which are being I , , , t . , , . A , , A ' jggg crossed with Shropshire docs. 1 ' V - O 'ci fe' V- "pv ' j Al - Cross-bred Bokliaran lambs, from which astrakhan is obtained. TXHAT Is tho fur of royalty today? It is not ermine save for official offi-cial robes. It is not sable, though tho latter Is costly enough to bo a luxury even for princes. It Is the fleeco of the Bokhara sheep or, ono should rather say, of tho lamb which, by reason of its rarity and great exponsiveness, Is worn exclusively ex-clusively by royal, personages and a few of tho very .wealthiest nobility of Europe. and exquisitely beautiful, In tight little lit-tle curls, the skins looking liko figured velvet. Exportation of tho sheep Is forbidden, forbid-den, and pure-bred specimens aro so valuablo for breeding that tho lambkins lamb-kins fotch astonishing prices. A few of tho animals have been smuggled from timo to time Into Afghanistan, where they have been crossed with nallvo sheep. It Is tho cross-bred lambs, killed when now-born, now-born, that yield tho "astrakhan" of commerce, miici comes irom Aignan-istan. Aignan-istan. Tlie quarter-bred skins one-fourth one-fourth Bokhara aro gray, but aro usually dyed black on reaching Europe, Eu-rope, for the trade. A common trade namo for them is "Persian lamb." Mainly through the efforts of Colonel Colo-nel Roosevelt, when ho was President, a few pure-bred Bohharan bucks wore secured a few years ego. and brought to the United States. The Government Govern-ment Bureau Of Animal Industry obtained ob-tained possession of three, worth $3000 apiece, which unfortunately were' lost ) I IH in a fire. IH The experiments contemplated b7 ' j ( the bureau, however, are now being i ' ' carried on by private entcrprlso in , j Texas and at Fayettevillc, N. T., where ' Bokharan bucks of high lineage are j it ' being crossed iwlth Shropshire and L-ln- 1 jH coin does, the object in view being to j , IH nroduco an "asjtrakhan" far superior jH to the best Imported. j This seems suro to be accomplished, ! ' for the cross-breeding in Afghanistan 11 j jH Is dono on very unscientific principles, 1( and the native sheep used do not in ! ; ( jH A Bokharan "baby" lamb, V ' the pick of. the flock. luil 'f 1 the least compare with Llncolns or i Shropshlres, which have long and ji ) j beautiful fleeces, that of tho Shrop- ): ! . fhlro being hardly inferior to tho curly golden wool of the pure-bred Angora ' Eventually these experiments ought : "'i to result Jn tho development of an Im- ! l ( portant fur-producing industry in this ; counto'- We shall produco our own I, . "astrakhan" in great quantity, and it ' ! jJ will be incomparably handsomer' than j i 1 1 the imported. i i ill IH Few furs arc more admired, and the v I j fl demand for it is so great that for j, many years past, taking tho world at j large. It has exceeded tho supply by I I 50.000 skins per annum. . ! ' Liko the pure-bred Bokharan lambs, j j 1 the cross-breed begin to loso their : 1 ' ; beauty of fleeco when only four or five . , days old. Hence, for the fur market, ' 1 it is necessary to kill them soon after t i they come into tho world. But thi I ' widespread popular notion that "Pen ; slan lamb" skins aro obtained from j j' animals as yet unborn is wholly with j out basis in fact j (!j |
