pite the effort of
distributors to dissuade some of the better producers from joining. They
exercised bargaining control of over $2,500,000 annually. Though they
never actually went on strike, their large membership fund gave them a
strong bargaining position. "The distributors knew when that fund
accumulated to a good-sized sum that we weren't just a fly-by-night
outfit that could be pushed around, that we had resources we could rely
on."[140] Furthermore, the organization wisely kept its clout by
avoiding political issues and exercising minimum control over individual
methods of production. Its purpose was to streamline the
commercialization of a farm product, and in this effort it was highly
successful.

Northern Virginia's reputation for dairy excellence grew both in local
circles and throughout the state as a result of published census reports
and statewide comparisons of milk volume and butterfat content. The 1925
agricultural census shows Fairfax County to be the largest producer in
the state, with average yield per cow 70% above the statewide figure; in
1940 this margin was even greater.[141] Dairy Herd Improvement
Association #1, based in the Herndon area, had especially impressive
results. In 1935, for example, it had the second highest overall average
in Virginia and included four of the state's five most productive herds.
In 1937 the county's high-testing cow, a Holstein owned by Dr. F. W.
Huddleston, gave 2,031 pounds of milk (8.6 pounds to a gallon) per month
to a statewide average of 620.[142]

As a result of these impressive showings, many local farmers shied away
from general farming and began to put their energies into milk
production; new farmers were drawn to the area specifically for the
possibilities in dairy farming. Of ten families interviewed in the
Floris area, all save one connected their family's removal to Fairfax
County to the combination of transportation ease and excellent prices
afforded by the Washington milk market. "In this period there was an
immigration of farmers from other parts of the country, particularly in
the Valley of Virginia, who did not have an opportunity to market their
farm products and their livestock very readily up there in the Valley,"
related Joseph Beard, "... the Southern Railway, the Richmond,
Fredericksburg and Potomac [Railways were] quite an asset to people who
wanted to market their farm products so a lot of them moved up
here."[143] Many of the newcomers