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years $2.5 to $3 million (depending on the vagaries of cattle pricing), tree fruit is still typically a little over $2 million, and forest products, corn for grain, other animal husbandary, and other fruits and vegetables contribute $1 million or over. The total, then, is $5.5 to $6 million.
How does this compare with Rappahannock’s total economy? Although this is a somewhat elusive figure, I was told that the total retail sales is a useful measure of this, coming to $13 million. We end up with agriculture bulking about $8 million, counting in revenues of the support activity — the Rappahannock Farmers Coop — in an economy whose total is something like $16 to $20 million.
Agriculture, then, is a substantial fraction of economic activity here, 35 percent to 50 percent, and this fraction is larger than that prevailing in neighboring counties of our Planning District (Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison and Orange counties).
There may be a burgeoning tourist and recreation industry here, but so far the big one is agriculture. Aside from this, no replacement activity is in sight except real estate development. Recalling that most people come here for open spaces and fresh air, the impending shift to some sort of “asphalt jungle” is a rather poor prospect. Indeed, persons who have experienced this elsewhere report it is accompanied by much higher taxes and a poorer quality of living.
It should come as no surprise that there are those who wouldn’t mind the demise of agriculture.
But still, Wall Street financial men are saying the ‘nineties will be the “decade of the farmer” and are placing their bets accordingly. It is possible that Rappahannock, for a lot of technical reasons which may or may not be understood by our leaders, will participate in some of this.
GEORGE H. SHARP
Washington
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