Here are shown two Norwegian farm women spinning and carding wool as our grandmothers used to do. A farm home in Norway has to be almost self-supporting. That is, everything eaten and worn has to be made on the farm or in the neighborhood. This is just as it was in our own country in early times. On the farms of this north country are kept herds of sheep, cattle, and goats. The cattle and the goats furnish milk, cheese, and skins. The sheep supply the wool for weaving clothes and blankets. You can see for yourself what a rough country it is, and how poor the soil is to raise grain. The woman to your right has in front of her a basket of washed wool. She takes a handful of the wool and combs it out smooth. These she throws into a roll, called a card. The woman at the spinning wheel takes a card of the wool and twists a number of the threads together into a thread of yarn. This is done by the rapid turning of a bobbin driven by the large spinning wheel. One of the threads so made she is holding in her hands. Beneath the spinning wheel you see a number of balls of yarn. Contrast this method with that of spinning woolen clothes in our own country to-day. No longer do out mothers and sisters sit at the spinning wheel, or tread the loom. That is already 3 generations behindhand. If mother wants a coat or sister wishes a new woolen suit, she goes to the store and buys it ready-made; or she purchases the cloth and has her dressmaker or tailor make it. Thousands of great looms driven by powerful engines thunder all day long in our woolen factories. Yards upon yards of fine cloth are spun from the fleeces every day in the year. Keystone ID: 13496 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.