ANGORA RABBITS
['To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—S0 many people have urged the necessity of" Buying British" to restore our finances to their once happy state, that it may come as a surprise to the great public to know that there are a number of industries in which the desire to "Buy British" exists without the opportunity of doing so. One instance, of which I can speak with definite knowledge, is the production of Angora rabbit wool. One factory alone needs over 1,500 lb of wool (worth about £2,500) per week to maintain its normal output—and of this quantity about four- fifths has to be imported from France. Why ? The Angora rabbit is not like a vine which needs a special soil and climate. We can breed Angoras in this country as easily and as success.
fully as any country in the world. A limited number of us are already doing so. The initial capital required is negligible, no great space is needed, and the demand" is nanny :times greater than the available supply: .
The well-known breeds of natuialzfur rabbits offer a similar opportunity for those who are keen enough to realize the immense scope their breeding offers. The fact that over ten million dressed rabbit-skins and sixteen million undressed rabbit-skins were imported into this country during 1925 indicates the size and importance of this industry, and I feel sure that if the possibilities were but better known we should . find this "home industry" as popular and profitable here as it is on the Continent. And the money, amounting to large, sums in the aggregate, would be kept in this country.—I am Sir, &c., Heaselands, Barham, Canterbury.
E. l3os.rocK SMITH.
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