Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1910 — West Raising Sacred Sheep [ARTICLE]

West Raising Sacred Sheep

Former Yale Professor Expects to Make Fortune Out of Experiment on Pacific Coast. Tacoma. Wash.—On Hesper island, tn Puget sound, George Sifford. a former Yale professor, is tenderly caring for as choice a bunch of lambs as ever delighted the heart of a gentleman farmer. They are karakuls, or the sacred sheep of Asia and biblical times, and were secured by Sifford after great effort and considerable money. It is said they are the first ever raised in America; they are worth more than 100 times as much as the common sheep of the flocks. The Karakul is the sheep which produces wool used for the finest coats in Europe. Its wool Is almost priceless, and there are comparatively few garments made from the real Karakul. The pure bred sheep are to be found only in the herds of the wealthy noblemen of Bokhara, as the majority of the breed are mixed with Afghan and other species. Sifford, while acting as a missionary to central Asia, brought thirty of the sacred sheep to this country. He secured his first pure-bred sacred sheep because of a favor he did for a Bokhara nobleman. Convinced that such a sheep would soon be a source of great wealth If once adapted to America, he searched around to find others. He was rewarded In his efforts and finally through the aid of a wealthy uncle reached America with the specimens. To find a climate similar to that of Bokhara was the most serious question before Sifford. On the way down Puget sound from' Victoria. B. C., he passed Hesper Island, covered with everygreen trees and luxuriant shrubbery. Reaching Seattle, he returned to the Island to Investigate and found al-

most the identical glasses and shrubs that grow tn Bokhara, but of different names. Here he took the sacred sheep, and they flourished. Now there are fifteen lambs, and the next summer or two there will be a good-sized flock of the most valuable sheep In the world. The sheep are free from any of the diseases afflicting the common kinds, and the quality of wool produced since reaching American shores indicates an Improvement