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5 Adversity and Perseverance Though Franklin County is still rural and has more farms than any county in the southern Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, agriculture there is in jeopardy, and so are its farmers. The pressure mounts from a variety of sources both local and national, even international, including the low prices farmers receive for their milk and other products , the rising costs of farming—which includes land costs influenced by the lake and other development—the extra psychological strain on people in debt, a proposed Interstate, and a general lack of understanding and support for farmers from nonfarming neighbors, both those who have recently moved into the county as well as those who make the laws in state capitals and in Washington, D.C. Another problem is the start-up costs that young people face when trying to take over a farm. And sometimes young people simply no longer want to milk cows, and that is true even of German Baptist youths. One German Baptist family I talked with continue to live on their farm though none of their three children are interested in taking it over. Dean and Martha Taylor Bowman, talked with me at their picnic table outside their two-story farmhouse in August 2001. Dean is the youngest of six children. Since he was the last one at home, he inherited the family farm, as is “usually the way it works” among German Baptists, according to Dean. “In 1970 I began in partnership with my daddy after getting back from selective service,” having declared himself a conscientious objector for religious reasons. He continued, “My daddy and I ran it as a partnership for five years. At that time I bought the rest of it.” His parents continue to live just down the road. 101 03 thompson 101-142 2/27/06 8:34 AM Page 101 “The 1970s were the best years I had,” he says, “for more than one reason.” First, the dairy business was very good during those years. Second , “I was in partnership with my father.” After Dean and Martha bought the farm, his dad continued to help milk. Then, in 1976, Dean’s father had a fall. “He had a night light on the side of the garage and lightning hit it. He went up and took it down. When he got it fixed and went up the ladder to put it up again, he forgot to turn the current off. When he touched the two wires together, it knocked him off the ladder and broke his skull and his hip . . . He didn’t have any interest in milking anymore. He put one milker on one morning and that’s about all he ever did after the accident. He went to town to get parts, but no more milking help.” Though Dean and Martha had built up a beautiful farm with Dean’s parents, none of their children took an interest in dairy farming. “They didn’t mind farm work,” he says, “but they didn’t care about cows. My feeling is if you don’t care about cows, you won’t make it in farming in this part of the country. The oldest son wanted to increase the herd and hire somebody else to milk, but I didn’t want to. I’m not a personnel manager. We would have had to increase the herd, add more land, more crops, and more equipment, and so I wasn’t interested.” I asked him if the dairy had paid more, the children might have been interested. He replied, “You’re onto something. That’s probably true there.” “I decided if the boys weren’t interested, then I wasn’t either. We wanted to visit our oldest son’s children in Ohio. So we decided to get rid of the cows. I didn’t push my sons because I know if you’re going to make a farm work, you’ve got to like it. I’ll continue to rent the land to someone else for now. I’ve got no other plans. Somebody said, why don’t you sell it, but I know what would happen if I did and I don’t like to see that.” Dean and Martha Bowman continue to live on the beautiful rolling hills with their well-kept barns and outbuildings. All the grass is kept mown and the fences painted. It is an idyllic scene. All that is missing are the cows, and of course the farm...

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