Socks and Flocks 



dressed and more comfortable and our 

 lands vastly richer for the touch of 

 these million golden hoofs upon our 

 soil. 



One of the knitters wants to know- 

 why then this wool has to be imported. 

 "Why don't our own farmers grow 

 it?" Why be dependent upon Aus- 

 tralian "stations" and Argentine 

 estancias? The answer in simple lan- 

 guage is that as an economic proposi- 

 tion America cannot compete suc- 

 cessfully in the maintenance of the 

 particular type of sheep that bears the 

 special grade of wool required in such 

 volume in the manufacture of the 

 finer fabrics. The sheep that grows 

 this dense fine fleece can and does live 

 upon the scantiest of herbage on great 

 stretches of wild and sterile or even 

 desert lands that have little value for 

 general agricultural purposes. The 

 sheep that is bred in England — land of 

 delicious chops — and mainly in the 

 United States is of a heavier, fleshier 



[139] 



