Farms In Maryland

For decades it has been a Maryland landmark. Drive out Green Spring Avenue to Worthington Road and feast your eyes on Sagamore Farm, the famed horse center where Native Dancer, one of the equine sport's great performers, once galloped. The white fences surrounding the 400-acre showplace farm and the romping thoroughbreds in the pasture came to signify all that was grand about Maryland's long racing tradition.But in recent years, Sagamore Farm has come to signify all that has gone wrong with Maryland racing.

FREDERICK -- It was July 1864, and the enemy was marching south out of Frederick toward Washington. Along the banks of the Monocacy River, the federals dug in and tried to halt the advance.They failed. But the battle delayed Confederate Gen. Jubal Early and his troops for a day, giving Ulysses S. Grant time to rush Union reinforcements to Washington to repel the Confederates.Now, 129 years later, another skirmish looms at the Monocacy National Battlefield, this one over the federal government's purchase of Best Farm, where some of the fighting occurred.

James "Jimmy" Brown didn't punch a clock, work an eight-hour day or get a paycheck until he was almost 40 years old.Before that he got up with the sun each day and made a living working with his father on the family's 86-acre dairy farm in Glenelg.For years, profits from the Howard County farm supported his parents, his wife, Linda, and their three children.Today, the large red barn that once housed 68 milking cows is run down and serves as a storehouse for hay and straw. The tanks, pipeline and other equipment have been sold, and the family's four pigs are kept in the milking barn.

FOR SALE: Horse farm. 3 houses, 237 acres. Convenient to I-83. 8 miles of white fence just painted. Owner moving to town. Must see. Under $6 million.Eleanor R. Sparenberg says there's no truth to gossip that rap star Hammer and actor Sylvester Stallone have expressed interest in buying her spectacular horse farm just south of Hereford."

For Jay Martin, growing tiny tomato, broccoli and watermelon plants from seed is more than a business; it's a way of life.The 42-year-old former landscape contractor packed up his family six years ago, moved from upstate New York to a tiny spread on the Eastern Shore and took a different approach to farming than most of his neighbors.Mr. Martin eliminated the use of all chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides in his greenhouse operation."It's our philosophy," Mr. Martin says of his family's approach to agriculture.

PRESTON -- Dorsey Beasley's handshake is not what you'd expect from a man who's worked the fields of Caroline County for most of his 77 years. Instead of a wrenching, calloused vise grip, it's as gentle as his demeanor.Beasley wore a flannel shirt, dusty shoes and a smile as he greeted a visitor to his 5-acre farm near this Eastern Shore town. He once rented more land, but in retirement his work is confined to these few acres that rank among the smallest of small farms.He fumbled with a pocketknife while sitting in the cozy living room of his small country home and said proudly, "I ain't never had much, but I've kept what I've got."