Farm

In the wake of what he says was the accidental firing of his shotgun, James J. Dasher tidied up the mess that had been made in his home. He told police he swept up shotgun pellets that had sprayed across the fireplace, officers testified yesterday. He tossed the casings of spent shotgun shells - although he later said he couldn't remember where. And he dumped a piece of plywood that had been hit by the blast into a trash pit on his sprawling organic farm in northern Baltimore County. "He was cleaning up," Officer Kyle Blackburn testified yesterday at Dasher's assault trial.

Stephanie Stone fulfilled a longtime wish when she moved to a 15-acre horse farm on Broad Creek in northern Harford County 23 years ago. Neighboring farms surrounded her home until about a decade ago, when the vista began to change. Harford's population has nearly doubled since Stone, a research psychologist and teacher at the Johns Hopkins University, arrived. On her commute to work, she saw how development was encroaching on areas with a long-standing agricultural tradition. "I started seeing all this housing where farms were," she said.

In their fourth year of attracting suburbanites to the country with friendly animals, farm machinery, fresh air and family fun, organizers of Howard County's Farm/City Celebration are adding a focus on healthy living to this year's two-week schedule of events. New attractions include a family walk at Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, sponsored by the county Health Department; a Walk in the Woods at Bon Secours Spiritual Center in Marriottsville; and a program at the Glenwood library for adults to learn about rain gardens.

The issue: The state has scrapped its quest to build an equestrian park in Anne Arundel County amid new, daunting local opposition: a competing bid from the county to turn the former Naval Academy Dairy Farm into a working farm for the public, community gardens and a botanical garden. J. Robert Burk, executive director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board, said the county's move eliminated any chance for the state to muster the necessary political support - specifically from County Executive John R. Leopold - for the estimated $114.

TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY Farm Heritage Days Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum, 12985 Frederick Road, West Friendship, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. $5 admission for ages 12 and older. www.farmheritage.org TOMORROW Healthy Howard Family Walk Howard County Health Department at Clark's Elioak Farm, 10500 Route 108, Ellicott City, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. 410-730-4049 Fall Festival Days End Farm Horse Rescue, 15856 Frederick Road, Woodbine, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., small admission fee. 301-854-5037, or www.defhr.

Told that he was about to receive a big gift to reward his "integrity," David L. Wonderlin peeked through the swinging doors of his former boss' kitchen and spotted something that he said stopped him in his tracks: Eighteen inches - maybe more - of the barrel of a shotgun. "I turned and ran, and there was a shot," the farmhand and carpenter testified yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. He later added, "I was running for my life, as fast as I possibly could, and wishing I was in better shape."

In a Reisterstown field, a circular garden connects nature with the months of the Jewish calendar and ties agriculture to Jewish heritage. The Gan Luach Zman, or calendar garden, is one example of how a Jewish retreat center in Baltimore County is marrying sustainable farming principles with the traditional practices described in Jewish texts to teach children and adults about Jewish culture and the environment. The Kayam farm at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in Reisterstown strives to reunite Jews with their agrarian roots while drawing connections between people and the planet, social justice and stewardship.

To the passer-by, the Rash brothers farm is a postcard of idyllic country life: Green pastures of timothy and alfalfa slope down to lazy streams. A white clapboard farmhouse and grain silos stand clustered together like a family portrait. At sunset, when the land is washed in an orange glow, it is easily one of the prettiest scenes in Carroll County.But the Rash brothers -- Edwin, Glenn and Claude -- are farmers, not poets. A land's beauty alone, they say, is not enough to pay the bills."Farming is done in the area.

State and federal authorities completed a four-year undercover investigation of a Dorchester County hunt club over the weekend, arresting or issuing citations to almost two dozen guides, fishermen and hunters charged with about 400 violations of game and fishing laws.Maryland Natural Resources Police say they began documenting illegal hunting and fishing at the 2,000-acre Golden Hills Farm in February 1995, booking hunting trips through the farm's guide service. They continued their investigation when the farm became a shooting club and began charging members annual dues in 1996.

Edgar Merryman Lucas, one of Maryland's most prominent thoroughbred breeders and enthusiastic horsemen, died Saturday of cancer at Blakehurst Life Care Community in Towson. He was 89.Mr. Lucas presided over Helmore Farm, his 87-acre horse breeding farm in Brooklandville, where during his career, more than 50 stakes winners were bred or raised."He was a charming kind of guy who always had a nice stable of horses," said Snowden Carter, Maryland racing historian and retired editor of the Maryland Horse.

Eugene "Euke" Todd, a former Harford County cattleman turned developer, died in his sleep Sept. 30 at his Bel Air home. He was 87. Born in Galax, Va., the son of farmers, Mr. Todd was a child when he moved with his family to Colorado Springs. "His father had tuberculosis and doctors advised that he move to the drier climate of Colorado. After he regained his health, he moved in the early 1930s to Pylesville," said a daughter, Cara T. Blount of Bel Air. Mr. Todd, who had attended Bel Air High School, helped his father manage several Harford County farms and hauled livestock to market from surrounding local farms as well as from farms in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

An isolated Harford County farm will remain under quarantine through the end of this month after a horse stabled there tested positive for the rabies virus and was euthanized, officials said. The county health department will observe all animals at the Churchville farm before lifting the 45-day quarantine on Aug. 31. The horse, which arrived at the farm in May, manifested striking changes in behavior in mid-July. On the recommendation of the health department, the animal was taken to the University of Pennsylvania veterinary facility in New Bolton, which diagnosed the rabies infection.

As the Howard County Fair celebrates its 64th season this year, it still puts the emphasis on farming and a simpler way of life. "We strive very hard to maintain our agricultural roots," said H. Mitchell Day, fair association president. "Children born here now don't have as much opportunity to know about farming firsthand." At the fair, which started Saturday and continues through this coming Saturday, there will be a wealth of shows with horses, ponies, sheep, rabbits, cattle, mules, swine and goats, as well as dogs and other pets.

As they have for 64 years, northern Baltimore County families are preparing for the annual Hereford Junior Farm Fair on Saturday, certain the event has a future but uncertain where that might be. Their longtime location at Hereford High School is about to become a parking lot for the expanding school. "Our barns will be torn down," said Kelly Wilson, the fair coordinator whose daughters are the third generation of the family to show at the event. "This is our last fair at the school, but none of us are saying this is our last fair."

Baltimore County will build a $9 million agriculture center in Hunt Valley that will offer office and meeting space as well as classrooms, greenhouses and demonstration fields for groups now spread throughout the area. Officials said the Baltimore County Center for Maryland Agriculture, located on a 149-acre property just west of Interstate 83 on Shawan Road, will extend the county's commitment to farming. The county purchased the land from the Tillman family, which had operated a horse farm and boarding business there.

The Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown is helping stretch taxpayer dollars this summer with a hefty contribution to the Antietam National Battlefield. The unlikely donation - more than 110 tons of field stone - is being put to use by the National Park Service in the restoration of buildings at three historic farms that survived the bloodiest one-day fight of the Civil War, on Sept. 17, 1862. More than 22,000 Americans on both sides were killed or wounded in the first major battle on Northern soil.

Ron Holter likes to say he's farming as God intended, without pesticides on the grass fields or hormones or antibiotics in the cows. But visitors to his organic dairy farm west of Frederick on Tuesday also heard about how the Earth, animals, consumers - and his pocketbook - are also benefiting. Holter, a fifth-generation farmer at Holterholm Farm in Jefferson, was host to a field day for about 50 farmers to spread the gospel. He's had the tours before, but this year he added speakers on grazing management, farm income and marketing from the day's sponsors at the Maryland Grazer's Network.

A last-minute bankruptcy filing has saved Nixon's Farm, a Howard County landmark known for social and political gatherings, from a foreclosure auction originally scheduled for today. The Chapter 11 filing in U.S. District Court on Tuesday will allow Randall Nixon to continue operating the 128-acre West Friendship farm his family has owned since 1956, said James A. Vidmar, the Annapolis lawyer representing Nixon and his mother, Mildred. "This just gives us breathing room to get some plan in place to protect this valuable property," Vidmar said.

State and local officials are looking to buy a 190-acre waterfront farm in eastern Baltimore County from a developer, even though the partly wooded spread on Back River scored poorly on a rating system the state uses to rank potential purchases for parkland. No deal has been reached, and no one would reveal what price has been discussed with developer Mark C. Sapperstein, who says he has spent at least $6 million to buy and improve the land. But county officials, who paid Sapperstein more than the appraised value of another property two years ago, say they would be "very interested" in acquiring Bauer's Farm to preserve it from development and to expand public access to the river and Chesapeake Bay. "Anytime Baltimore County could preserve a couple hundred acres of prime waterfront property and add it to the county's park inventory, that would always get our interest," said Don Mohler, spokesman for County Executive James T. Smith Jr. The farm, with nearly a mile of shoreline, adjoins 1,360-acre North Point State Park, which has a wading beach, fishing pier and hiking trails.

Don't like farm business? Try development Having grown up in the farming community in Howard County, I have a message for the neighbors of Bobby Prigel, who fought him tooth and nail when he proposed to produce and sell organic dairy products from his farm in Greenspring Valley ("A win for common sense, local food," May 24). Just be happy I did not own the property that was proposed to remain rural and operate as a farm. I would have sold the farm to developers at the first hint of a protest.