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By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON
A recovering economy that has sparked construction activity and land sales and pushed the Aileen Sewing Plant, Rappahannock’s largest single employer, back to full production and hill staff has apparently brushed Rappahannock’s agricultural industry as well.
“Farmers are buying more fertilizer, they’re buying more seeds, they’re redoing pastures, they're buying more of everything,” reported Gordon Thornhill, manager of the Rappahannock Farmers’ Cooperative. While he declined to put a dollar or percentage figure on the recent increase in co-op business, he acknowledged that “things , jJgS&fF the year,” judging by the first ^ quarter of 1984. “January and February are normally slow months but we’ve been much busier this year. . . It looks like agriculture is coming back to where it was in 1981. Things are up for the first three months.”
According to Thornhill, orchardists, like beef producers, had it pretty rough in 1983. “But they’re coming out of it and buying. They’re getting ready for spring. They’re optimistic that things will get better. Farmers are always optimistic.”
The co-op manager noted that less than three percent of the U.S. population — America’s farmers — feed the remaining 97.5 percent of the country, as well as exporting produce to the rest of the world. “Our farmers are growing more. They’re feeding more people but they haven’t been making more profits,” he said, adding that agriculture is one segment of the economy that hasn’t been helped much by the current administration.
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