AGRICULTURE

Greencastle and Antrim Township are in ag country. No two ways about it. Drive three minutes in any direction (even allowing for traffic), and you will spot pastures, crop fields or a business related to farming. You will pass pickup trucks and livestock and stores carrying goods needed by or produced by farmers.

Antrim Township, the Borough of Greencastle, and the Greencastle-Antrim School District created a Comprehensive Plan, and it presents information on Antrim’s agricultural heritage. The township agricultural land designation is for areas “where agricultural activity is predominant and generally where highly productive soils are present. The purpose of the classification is to continue to promote agricultural activity, while allowing for some residential and other non-agricultural activities.”

Antrim has about 30,000 acres devoted to agriculture, which is 70 percent of its land mass. For Franklin County as a whole, 44 percent of the land is used for farming.

The county has somewhere in the number of 1,600 farms, and is second in the state in the production of milk, cattle, apples, peaches and corn for silage. And at last count, more than 120 family farms registered more than 16,500 acres in an agricultural land preservation program. The county itself has purchased agricultural conservation easements on more than 20 farms to protect the acreage for future generations.

Penn State Cooperative Extension serves Franklin County, so residents in our immediate locale also receive the benefits of the land grant college. While Extension offers programs for all ages and interests, its specialty is agriculture. Its mission in that regard is “to be a trusted agent of change, responding rapidly with researched-based solutions to challenges and opportunities.”

Educators interact with the public through hands-on sessions, research trials, newsletters, news columns (including a weekly one in the Echo Pilot), farm visits, websites (their home page is extension.psu.edu/franklin), telephone calls and publications. They are anxious to help farmers improve agricultural production.

The Extension educators focus on particular fields, including integrated pest management, entomology, horticulture, 4-H youth development, tree fruit, sustainable specialty crop production, vegetables, dairy, the environment, poul-

try, composting, animal welfare, farmstead layout, family

The Franklin County Junior Fair Board is in charge of the Baby Barnyard.

living, gardening and so much more. The first step to using their resources is just a phone call away at 717-263-9226. The physical address of the office is 181 Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg.

The Franklin County Fair is held in July. It is held on the grounds of the Chambersburg Rod and Gun Club, Warm Spring Road. There people exhibit their best products, whether home grown, baked or assembled. Friends and neighbors gather for special events and activities throughout the week, to celebrate what is great about rural Pennsylvania. It is a time to be proud of country living. g