y.[18] Hay and feed
stores abounded in neighboring towns but most dairymen attempted to
supply their own straw, ensilage and grain, thus cutting costs by making
the most efficient use of their land. This involved raising several
crops and a year-round effort of cultivation.

Work began in early spring when a team of horses--later a
tractor--pulled a steel plow across each field, turning up the earth
into a rough and lumpy mass. Little was known of contour plowing or
planting at this time, and the team was driven back and forth in
straight rows. C. T. Rice and County Agricultural Extension Agent H. B.
Derr both noted that erosion was a major problem in the area at the
time.[19] The newly broken ground was then worked with a "drag,"
generally made of heavy logs chained together and topped with a platform
on which the driver stood. The purpose of this implement was to use the
weight of the "drag" to break up the soil clods. After this was
finished, a field still needed to be worked once more before planting,
this time with a harrow. The harrow resembled a large, spike-toothed
rake, with two sections, each containing four rows of teeth. Passed over
the field, it stirred up the ground and continued the pulverization of
the soil to make a mellow, friable seed bed.[20]

These chores were exacting and time-consuming. Neal Bailey, who has
spent many of his 66 years in working fields around Floris, estimated
that a man and strong team could harrow or drag but a ten-acre field in
about 6-1/2 hours. Plowing took even longer. "Most of the land was hard
to plow and we had to start as soon as possible in the spring in order
to get through before it got too hard and sometimes we didn't make it,"
wrote Wilson McNair. The majority of farmers could plow only an acre or
acre and a half in a day's time.[21]

Fairfax County's soil (principally Chester loam, a clay soil with a
slightly acidic base) was deep, fertile and, as Joseph Beard put it,
"adapted to growing the kinds of things cows like to eat at a reasonable
price."[22] Because it was somewhat acidic, the soil benefitted from the
addition of lime and, of course, needed other fertilizers. Fertilization
techniques had been known for hundreds of years (George Washington
burned oyster shells to obtain lime for his fields), however, their
benefits were not always fully understood. Most farmers spread manure
and some guano on their cropland, but correct chemical balances for
specific cro