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“I’VE BEEN over to Purcellville to ask, and they tell me that the seed price might be pretty good this year,” said Herbert Foster, between making adjustments on the threshing machine. The usual procedure is to get all the seed bagged and stored, and then invite bids. “The Co-op usually bids highest,” said one of Foster’s sons, Charles.
From 225 acres planted, Herbert Foster expects to bag between 6,000 and 7,000 bushels of orchard grass this year. If the price goes to $3.50 a bushel or better, which some say will be the case, that,adds up to a pretty good money crop. But Foster also grows corn, wheat and oats, and runs feeder cattle and cows, in addition to maintaining sizeable apple orchards. “These days,” he says, “you’ve got to do a little bit of everything.”
Threshing of orchard grass is a fading art, however, because of the labor it requires. With Herbert Foster, that’s no problem— he’s got sons Charles, Downing and Gavor to help, and tenants who live right on the farm. Last week, he had a lot of them out helping—Henry Jenkins and Pete Atkins, Cornelia Frazier, Betty Walters, Robert Ramey, Mary Ramey, Brenda Ramey, Sherman Atkins.
USING COMBINES is the growing practice in this area, because it requires less labor. But Foster estimates that the seed yield is one-third less, and not as clean—
Photos by Ray Dilley
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