ugh sometimes two or more
families shared this duty. Rebecca Middleton recalled her brother
collecting cans in an early model truck with a canvas top; he traded
hauling with the neighboring Bradleys.[11] For a short time a community
co-op, based in Floris, was also established to collect milk for
shipment to Washington, D.C.[12] As this milk-laden caravan approached
Herndon, the small station there bustled suddenly with activity. For at
least one local resident, the sight and sounds were memorable. The
"banging of the milk cans at the depot," recalled Lottie Schneider, who
grew up in Herndon, "... resounded far and wide." "I liked to hear [it]
... for busy men were working and it was a friendly sound."[13]

Milking was, of course, just one of many chores involved on the family
farm. After a 6:30 breakfast (still early in the eyes of many city
dwellers) there were stalls to clean, equipment to sterilize, other farm
animals to be cared for. Most Fairfax farms retained a few animals for
home use even when concentrating on milk production. Before
mechanization completely revolutionized farm work, draft horses provided
the farm's muscle and a fifty-acre farm would need two to four for
plowing, raking hay, and cutting wheat with a binder. The feeding and
grooming of these animals formed a vital task. Though Lang and Hurst's
commercial meat wagon came through Floris and other communities each
Saturday, many families kept hogs and chickens for their own
consumption.[14] Elizabeth Rice from the Oakton area stated that,
despite her husband's reluctance to spend energy on any facet of farming
outside dairying, they raised hogs, "kept on the back end of the farm in
the woods."[15] In Floris nearly every family also raised hogs and
chickens and Holden Harrison remembered that they "used to get about a
hundred chicks each spring--we'd eat them all up by fall."[16] Few
Floris area farms kept sheep, though census figures show about 1,200 in
the county during this period.[17] In addition, dogs, cats, mules and an
occasional goat made up the farm population, all demanding the farmer's
attention and time.

With the stock watered, fed, given fresh bedding, and possibly turned
out to pasture, the farmer could turn his attention to crops and other
matters. Census records show hay and corn to be Fairfax County's most
important crops. Little of these were sold commercially, however, rather
they were used as support crops for the dairy industr