e and the consequent rise in taxation. In 1923 the average acre in
the county was worth $5 to $10; it had more than doubled in value by the
end of that decade.[206] Taxes rose accordingly. The editors of the
_Fairfax Herald_ complained in 1926 that in addition to the cost of living
which had risen 78% from 1913, they paid federal taxes which were 200%
over the pre-World War I figure.[207] The farmer also carried the burden
of cost for his much-desired roads. In addition to bond issues, there
was a Virginia state gasoline tax which fell heavily on the farmer with
his gas-driven machinery and need to haul produce to market.[208]
Taxation, like labor, machinery and manufactured goods, called for
additional cash, which was more and more difficult for the family farmer
to raise. "There's only one thing that has driven the dairy industry out
of Fairfax County, and that's taxes," concluded Holden Harrison. "The
land was suitable, the location was suitable, but who's going to run a
dairy on $10,000 an acre land?"[209]

* * * * *

An editorial in the _Fairfax Herald_ for September 6, 1935, reflects well
the changes seen on farms of the depression era.

Housewives throughout the county are becoming more and more
incensed over the steadily rising prices of foodstuffs,
particularly meats.... In many places housewives are actually
boycotting merchants who attempt to sell meat at the present price
level. The blame for the present rise in prices lies directly at
the door of the Raw Dealers and Brain Trusters. These smart young
gentlemen had a theory and in pursuance of that theory they
slaughtered a great number of hogs, in order to keep prices at an
unnaturally high level. They succeeded only too well.[210]

That the farm family was no longer raising its own meat, that they had
lost a good deal of control over the quality and availability of their
daily necessities, that housewives viewed themselves as important and
cohesive enough to organize a boycott, that farm commodities were no
longer strictly under the regulation of the farmer, and that the
government's interference was beginning to be questioned and resented
were signs of radical change in rural economic and social structure. The
farmer was no longer so isolated, nor so overtaxed with sheer physical
labor. The price he paid for these advantages was diminishing control
over a way of life which had b