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Maryland natural resources officials proposed new crabbing rules yesterday that were not as strict as watermen had feared, but will disproportionately hurt crabbers on the Lower Eastern Shore. The state is proposing to close the blue crab season for harvesting females Oct. 23 - about seven weeks early. That's the time of year that many Lower Shore watermen have enjoyed big catches because females are migrating down the Chesapeake Bay to spawn. It's also a busy time for the state's remaining crab-picking houses, which buy much of the female crab meat and pack it for shipping around the country.

Economists note there should not be two prices for one thing at the same place and time. Could a drugstore sell two identical tubes of toothpaste, and charge 50 cents more for one of them? Of course not. But, in effect, exactly that has been happening, repeatedly and mysteriously, in trading that sets prices for corn, soybeans and wheat - three of America's biggest crops and, lately, popular targets for investors pouring into the nation's volatile commodities market. Economists who have been studying this phenomenon say they are at a loss to explain it. Whatever the reason, the price for a bushel of grain set in the derivatives markets has been substantially higher than the simultaneous price in the cash market.

If you have five acres in the backyard and a Rototiller, you can make a living in organic farming, according to Luke Howard. Howard is chairman of the Maryland Agricultural Commission, a 30-member panel made up of a cross-section of farmers that advises the state agriculture secretary on farm issues. He is an organic farmer and also serves as the industry's representative on the commission. "The organic food industry is growing rapidly and has been growing rapidly for many years," said Howard.

HOOPERS ISLAND-- --There's no real need for these two aging sisters to start work two hours before dawn. No reason for Nellie Flowers and Edythe Thomas to keep up their relentless pace, pulling fluffy white meat from bushel after bushel of crabs in the same processing plant where they've labored for more than half a century. Then again, Nellie, 79, and Edythe, 77, say they've never been the kind to just sit still. Where would they go, if not to work? How would they fill their days from April to November, when the traditional cash crop is scooped from the waters that surround this marshy sliver of the Eastern Shore?

They brought pitchers and paintings, candlestick holders and a clock that chimed pleasantly every 15 minutes or so. And then they waited - anxiously - to see whether an appraiser from the PBS series Antiques Roadshow would pick up their precious possession to opine about. "We are, ourselves, antiques, so we're always interested in old stuff," quipped Arthur Bushel, 86, of Owings Mills, who brought an old pocket watch that he inherited from an uncle who managed a department store in Germany.

CHICAGO -- Corn continued its sharp rise in price yesterday, driven upward by demand for ethanol and an increasingly prosperous world eager for food. The benchmark price of corn reached an exchange-imposed limit of $3.965 a bushel shortly after trading began at the Chicago Board of Trade. To maintain financial stability, the board limits daily increases and decreases in corn to 20 cents per bushel. Limits are rarely needed, the exchange said, and come into play only when prices are highly volatile.

Maryland: Oysters A longer season and a higher price Maryland oystermen will have a longer season this year - starting today instead of early November - and will get more money for oysters because production in the Gulf Coast has been crippled by hurricanes. A bushel of oysters from the Chesapeake Bay could fetch more than $40 this winter - up from about $30 a bushel last season - because of sharply reduced supply. But the Chesapeake's tiny catch won't make much difference in the nation's oyster supply.

Workshop set on management plans The Maryland Department of Agriculture and University of Maryland Cooperative Extension will hold a workshop for farmers who want to become certified to write nutrient management plans for their own operations. A workshop will be held on "Crop Operations Using Manure and Fertilizer" starting Oct. 17 in Frederick County. Other workshops on different plans will be offered around the state. Certification requires attendance at two workshops. The first class gives the fundamentals of planning and take-home materials to study.

BEWARE. The first triple-dozen he-man-size crab sculptures have landed on sidewalks throughout Baltimore. There may be excess smiling in those areas. The summerlong installation of 160 or more fiberglass crustaceans, mild and wild artistic riffs off the same basic form, will certainly liven up the city's concrete, brick and glass complexion. When they are auctioned off in November, they will contribute to the city's campaign to shore up its dilapidated schools. A win-win for the city. And it's about time.

Long associated with bottom feeding and Old Bay, the crab has commanded little respect in artistic circles. Perhaps its time has come. This month, a call went out for artists with a yen to create crab art. By May, as many as 200 of the 5 1/2 -foot decorated crab sculptures will pop up all over town - the Inner Harbor, City Hall, maybe even at M&T Bank Stadium. "I want to see them all over town. Put them everyplace!" said Nancy Haragan, executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, one of several organizations in the Baltimore Crabtown Project, a public art and school fund-raising effort.