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continually outstrip farming incomes.
Comparative figures for farm machinery, for instance, show that a tractor which a few years ago cost from $5,000 to $8,000 now costs a farmer $30,000 to $55,000. Petroleum fuels to operate the machinery have quadrupled in cost, as has the cost of fertilizers and insect sprays.
Urban pressures for more and more land for building, and the ever-increasing cost of land, make it difficult for a farmer who is operating at a loss to continue to resist turning over his land for development. According to the latest available figures from the National Agricultural Land Study, 31 million acres of farmland were converted to urban build-up, transportation and water impoundments from 1967 to 1977. In the State of Virginia, about 100,000 acres of farmland are being
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89.9%