Farm Equipment

The weather was just about frigid enough to freeze grass, but Chris Chaney of Glen Burnie was on the prowl for a lawn mower bargain yesterday. Hundreds of other people were looking for deep discounts, too -- on everything from tires and tractors to carpet and cabinets. It might seem like an odd combination. But at the Howard County Machinery Auction, almost everything is fair game. The one-day consignment sale -- held every spring and fall at the county fairgrounds in West Friendship -- draws several thousand people, mainly men, who have a hankering for machines, tools, spare parts, building material or a combination thereof.

RACINE, Wis. -- New Holland NV, the world's second-biggest farm-equipment maker, said yesterday that it will buy Case Corp. for $4.3 billion in cash to cut costs and compete better with market leader Deere & Co.New Holland will sell debt and equity to pay for the $55-a-share purchase, which is 23 percent higher than Case's closing price Friday and 51 percent more than a week ago. Fiat SpA, Italy's largest industrial company, owns 69 percent of New Holland...

Area sculptor's exhibit depicts 'social viruses'"Virus," an installation of steel creations by area sculptor Jim Roberts, appears at the Esther Prangley Rice Gallery at Western Maryland College for a two-week show beginning Tuesday.Featuring a compilation of work Roberts began last year, the show of more than 100 pieces will run through Sept. 18, with an opening reception scheduled from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.The sculptures depict what he terms contemporary social viruses, such as television, computers, fast food and telephones -- items he perceives have relentlessly attacked society.

The Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals has conditionally approved a request for a farm equipment sales and service business near Taneytown.Samuel and Linda Battaglia asked for the conditional use on property at Brown Road and Route 194, north of Taneytown. The land is zoned agricultural.The couple purchases, repairs and sells used and new farm machinery. They bought the 54-acre property recently to relocate their business. The Battaglias estimate they will have an average of 10 customers a day, Mondays through Saturdays.

A barn and farm equipment on Maple Lawn Farms in Fulton were destroyed Sunday by a fire, the Howard County Fire and Rescue Services said.A Holstein bull was killed, and a diesel tractor and about 120 bales of hay worth a combined $30,000 wee burned. Damage to the barn was estimated at $40,000.The cause of the fire is under investigation.Girl found unconscious in parents' poolA 12-year-old Lisbon girl was pulled unconscious from her parent's pool Saturday in the 3000 block of Shady Lane after nearly drowning, fire officials said.

ONCE A YEAR the Mason-Dixon Historical Society Inc. offers young and old a chance to learn about our past with its Steam and Gas Roundup, an event that showcases antique farm equipment and machinery.Have your children ever seen a horse pull a plow? At the Roundup, held at the Carroll County Farm Museum, they can see the progress we've made from horse power to steam power to gas engines.Last year, 212 gas engines registered for the show. This year Shane Ey will return with his 1933 Ford truck.

It's a sure sign of rampant suburban and exurban sprawl when government has to pass a law protecting farmers from nuisance suits filed by their indignant citified neighbors.This month, Harford County became the latest jurisdiction to pass right-to-farm legislation, defending the farmer's right to operate machinery at any time and to work his fields according to accepted agricultural practices.The noise of farm equipment and livestock in the middle of the night, the smell of manure, the menacing clouds of pesticide sprays -- these are increasingly common complaints of newcomers to the countryside who are not, and have never been, involved with agrarian production.

A large barn in the Upperco area containing 10 tons of hay and more than a dozen pieces of farm equipment burned to the ground in a three-alarm fire Wednesday night.The fire was discovered about 8 p.m. by Bruce Davidson, son of farm owner I. Watson Davidson, as he walked out of a garage next to his house, about 500 yards from the barn in the 1100 block of Emory Church Road.Bruce Davidson operates the Davidson Christmas Tree Farm, where hundreds of people cut their own tree during the holiday season.

After Saturday, the creaking wooden door at Reichlin's will be closed forever. The slight smell of grease and soil may linger in the air, but the answering machine with its "Fur Elise" chime will no longer respond to customer calls.Reichlin's, the only Massey Ferguson farm equipment dealer in Carroll County, is going out of business after a two-day auction at the Westminster store this weekend."I've had a lot of enjoyable years here," says Carl Reichlin of his business on Leister's Church Road.

Longshoremen in the port of Baltimore loaded 90 large pieces of agricultural equipment onto the NOSAC Sun this week, a shipment that maritime executives hope will persuade the Midwestern manufacturer of the machinery, J. I. Case, to become a regular user of the port."