Farmland

A leading legislator said yesterday that the state should consider selling revenue bonds to raise money to preserve farmland as open space -- a growing need, he said, as baby-boomer farmers retire. State Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, a Charles County farmer and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said many of the farmers he knows will be retiring in the next five to 10 years, and their children don't want to be farmers. To keep that land from becoming housing developments, Middleton said, the state needs to make sure it has a large enough pot of money to compete with developers.

Anne Arundel officials are on the verge of securing the development rights to nearly 400 acres of Lothian farmland, shoring up efforts by County Executive John R. Leopold to preserve large agricultural tracts and other open space early in his administration. The County Council last week approved spending as much as $1.9 million to buy the rights on parcels of 84 acres and 107 acres, both of which could remain as working farms as part of an installment purchase program. The council also backed efforts to appraise a third farm of 185 acres that would be preserved through a joint county-state program.

WALKERSVILLE -- This small town of shady porches and green fields saw its last murder in 1929. The mayor runs a feed and seed store, where on Monday nights he presides over a long-running dominoes game. Many people live here because their parents and grandparents lived here before them. And they like things the way they are. So, a Muslim group's plan to purchase 224 acres of farmland to use for an annual convention and other activities has created a stir - one of the biggest in decades.

The recent slump in Maryland home sales has slowed, but not stopped, the rising value of farmland in the state. According to a recent survey by the USDA, Maryland retained its position as having the sixth most expensive farmland in the nation. The average price of an acre of farmland here, including buildings, is up 3.9 percent from last year to $9,250 an acre. Driven by what was one of the hottest real estate development markets in the country in recent years, farmland prices here had been increasing at a rate nearly double the national average.

WYE MILLS -- A leading conservation group is calling on six Eastern Shore counties to buy more land to protect it from sprawling development that is gobbling up farm fields -- growth that could bring 160,000 new residents in the next quarter-century. In a report released yesterday, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy urged the Upper Shore counties of Dorchester, Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne's, Kent and Cecil to redouble efforts to preserve more than 578,000 acres, about 900 square miles of farm and forest land.

Anna Faust, 78, has lived in Essex her entire life, so when she discovered a recently released book chronicling the community's history, memories came rushing back. Faust's father, Walter Johnson, and her uncle, Lloyd Johnson, were members of the Vigilant Volunteer Fire Company, pictured on the cover of Jackie Nickel's new book, Essex. "It means the world," Faust said. "It's remarkable how she's captured all our old memories." The book is part of Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series, which produces photographic histories of communities throughout the country.

The same new homes that are gobbling up farmland across Maryland at an alarming rate have provided a boon to the turf grass industry, an often-overlooked sector of the state's agriculture industry. An estimated 1.1 million acres -- nearly 20 percent of Maryland's land -- is covered by maintained grass, and by far the greatest portion adorns the yards of single-family homes, according to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The study also concluded that turf grass is a $1.5 billion industry in Maryland, in terms of dollars spent on equipment and the production, maintenance and use of turf grass products and services.

He stands 5-feet-7 and wouldn't top 170 pounds unless he was holding an "oven stuffer" roast chicken. Yet Lewis R. Riley, the soft-spoken Eastern Shore poultry farmer turned state agriculture secretary, is viewed as a giant by many in Maryland farming, the state's largest industry. Riley, 71, who served as secretary under three governors, recently announced his retirement and is expected to leave office this week. When Lynne Hoot, executive director of the Maryland Grain Producers, said, "He will be missed," she echoed the thoughts of farmers throughout the state.

Upset about a proposed emergency services training center on McKinstry's Mill Road, about 30 residents of the Linwood area met with county officials and volunteer firefighters to voice concerns about the location. The meeting was held at Linwood Church of the Brethren, which overlooks the site of the proposed training center less than a half-mile away. The property, owned by Lehigh Cement Co., is surrounded by farms. Lehigh officials announced last month that they would donate 40 acres on McKinstry's Mill Road to the county for the center.

RONKS, Pa. -- Just off the bustling highway that cuts through the rolling farmland and small villages of Lancaster County stretches a road that in many ways depicts the disparate faces of this region. On one side of the street sits the Mennonite Information Center - offering Amish tours, historical exhibits and tales of the Biblical Tabernacle. Across the road is the Tanger Outlet Center, where throngs of shoppers from cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia flock to find deals on designer duds from Calvin Klein and Donna Karan in new buildings styled to resemble an old barn and silos.