STOCK BREEDING IN PALESTINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3860, 6 March 1928, Page 12

STOCK BREEDING IN PALESTINE.

Our subject has to do with stock breeding .a long way from home certainly, but is none the less of interest, seeing that an endeavour is being made to establish new types of cattle and sheep. The Palestine scheme involves the use of purebred stock, with the idea of improving the local breeds of stock, and necessarily implies good management in a country where much obstinacy and prejudice must be overcome. However, the manager of the stud farm which has been established, Brigadier-general Angus M‘Neill, reporting in December, 1927, indicates progress. A suitable site wa s selected near Acre, and here the Government nurseries and experimental station wer e started. The premises comprise 17 large and airy loose boxes in the main yard with cowhouse for eight cows, store, forage barns, dairy, saddl e room, stud groom’s quarters and offices. Away on the east side are the manager’s quarters, fenced paddocks with shelters, etc., and poultry yards. Through the property a Boman aqueduct passes, carrying water to th e quaint old town of Acre a mile away. On the disbandment of the British gendarmerie, in the summer of 1926, Mr M'Neill was appointed to organise this new service, and in England he selected and purchased suitable stud animals for shipment later. It had been decided, seeing that the horse population of Palestine is of Arab origin, that purebred Arab stallions would be best suited for crossing with th e local mares, and three promising young stallions were therefore procured from the Crabbet Arabian Stud and shipped to Palestine at the end of the year. It will probably be asked, “ Why, when Palestine is on the edge of the Arabian Desert, should it be necessary to go to England for Arab stallions . The answer our informant supplies : “ Good Arab stallions are exceedingly rare in the desert and almost impossible to procure, whereas the Crabbet btud, established some 50 years ago by Mr Wilfred and Lady Anne Blunt has remained uncontaminated during all these years, and the stock bred there is as pure and true to type as any in the world Two additional young Crabbet stallions have been recently added to the stud. These were shown some weeks ago to the Amir Abdullah, the ruler of Transjordan an acknowledged expert on the Arab horse, and he was loud in their praise and promptly arranged to send one of his mares to Husseini, a young grey Keheilan Ajuz, a son of champion Skovronek, which he very much fancied. Three purebred Arab mares also grace the Government stud. They came originally from the Amir Abdullah, and were presented to the Government stud, txvo by his Excellency Lord Plumer and one by Sir Ronald Storrs. All three are in foal to Government stallions. Considerable difficulty has been encountered in making the horse-keeping population believe that these stallions are of pure Arab blood, but when once the first crop of foals comes along it is hoped that these doubts will be dispelled. With regard to cattle, it was decided to import pedigree Devon bulls from England; as they had been a decided success in Cyprus and also in Natal, where the climatic conditions are very similar to those in Palestine. Accordingly one North Devon and three South Devon bulls, all under two years old, were sent from England at the same time as the three Arab stallions. Their size, especially with regard to their youth, we are informed, caused open-mouthed astonishment on the part of the local populace. The various tick-borne diseases to which imported cattle so/- easily succumb are a constant source of anxiety, and in spite of .c. every precaution ’ the North Devon .bull died from tick fever during the summer. The otjier three although afso- attacked in a milder form, have got through th e summer well, and can reasonably be expected to have now become to some extent acclimatised. Types of crossbred heifers, by Friesian bulls from local cows, have been procured for experimental purposes, and have been put to the Devon bulls in the hope of producing a general-purpose type suitable for the country. The improvement of sheep in Palestine presents. difficult features. There is a strong prejudice in favour of the fat-tailed breed, and consequently two merino rams which were imported by the Government were not at first very enthusiastically received, flockmasters complaining that their ewes f ran away from the fam when first introduced, never in their lives having seen such a strange apparition. For, the improvement of the local donkeys > jackasses have been imported from Cyprus, long famous for its donkeys, and a white Sudan donkev from Egypt. For mnle breeding two three-year-old Catalonian jacks were procured in Spain. It is doubtless uphill work, as in these countries ignorance, obstinacy, and prejudice have all to be gradually overcome, and it is only by demonstration that this can be achieved. As high-class young stock becomes distributed throughout the country and people notice for themselves the marked improvement on anything they have ever produced before, they° will naturally seek to reap some of the benefits which a long-suffering administration is endeavouring to bestow upon them. One can but hope that the policy commerced will be carried along on not dis-

similar lines, as over-much changing in the breeds of introduced purebred stock will be fatal to success. In breeding and selection along the lines adopted by the more skilled of our studmasters lies safety, and not in the diffusion of purebred stock and yet more purebreds. It would seem at this distance that the initial steps have been wisely taken.