Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 199, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1910 — TO RAISE FINEST FURS [ARTICLE]

TO RAISE FINEST FURS

Project to Keep $14,000,000 From Going Abroad. Dp. C. C. Young Imports Flock of Kar•kule Sheep and Describes Success of Crossing Them With American Breeds. Chicago.—A project designed to keep in the United States the $14,000,000 now going abroad ' annually for the Astrakhan, Persian broadtail and krimmer furs so fashionable among wealthy Americans has been launched by Dr. C. C. Young, a former Chicago physician, now commlsisoner of agriculture for the State of Coabulla, Mexi ico. It Is the breeding of Karakule cheep, the basis of all the fine furs that come from Persia and other portions of Central Asia. He has succeeded in bringing to America after great expense and much trouble, on account of the rigid laws forbidding ■the importation of Asiatic sheep because of the danger of Importing with ,tbem Asiatic diseases, a flock of full*blood Karakules and has begun the of them with American sheep at his ranch at Menor, Coahuila. Dr. Young was born in Bessarabia, la province of south Russia, and there fwas familar as a boy with the KaraIkule sheep which produce the beau(tiful furs, although he then never saw !a full-blood Karakule. He came to America when sixteen years old, took up the study of medicine, was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1901, and was for a lime on the advisory staff of the Cook County hospital.

When the throat infection for which he is now receiving treatment made it imperative that he give up his practice in Chicago and live an outdoor life in a southern climate his mind reverted to the Karakule sheep and he decided to occupy his time s with them. He finally surmounted the difficulties in the way of importing the sheep, and he now has a growing flock of them on his Mexican ranch. Recently he described enthusiastically the proportions to which the business may grow in the United States. “The Karakule sheep are the basis of all these fine furs," said Dr. Young, “and the value of the fur depends uipon the percentage of Karakule in It. Crossing/ the Karakule with the common scrub, sheep of Persia, we get the Persian -broadtail. Crossing it with the Astrakhan long-haired sheep we get Astrakhan, and crossing it with the common merino sheep of the Crimea we get the krimmer fur. “These sheep, however, are vastly inferior to the sheep of the United States, and I decided that by crossing the Karakule sheep with various brands of American sheep I would get even better fur that, produced in the United States, would be marketable at a profit at a far lower price than is pail for the Persian furs. My experiments so far have more than justithis conclusion.” Dr. Young exhibited some of the pelts he has taken from the lambs resulting from the crosses between the American sheep and the imported Karakules. The crosses between the Lincolnshire and Shropshire and the Karakule have given a fur that is of a far finer texture and much more beautiful luster than the imported furs.