Harford Legacy Farm Commemorative Book

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Harrison Farm est. 1919 - Pylesville, MD Current Owners: William and Judith Harrison Original Purchaser: T. Elmer Harrison Current Acreage: 32 Current Agricultural Products or Services: poultry, corn, and soybeans Preserved, Century Farm (MDA), and Governor's Recognition

My Grandfather purchased the farm in 1919 through 1957. My father purchased the farm from my grandfather until I purchased it in 1978. I then purchased until now, the farm has raised and produced milk cows, beef, hogs, chickens, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, hay, corn, beans, and grain. Presently, housing chickens for Wenger feed, corn, and beans. The farm contains a network of three streams that form the upper reaches of the Falling Branch and the streamside wetlands are known to support rare species. The farm is on the Mason-Dixon border. Leaders in Early Sustainable Agricultural Movement Harford County farmer Rusell Lord was a nationally recognized agricultural writer and leader in the early sustainable agricultural movement in the U.S. He was a co-founder of Friends of the Land, an agriculture conservation organization that published the journal, The Land . Lord lived with his wife Kate, an illustrator, on Thorn Meadow Farm in Deer Creek Valley. As early as the 1930s, Lord and the farmers of the Deer Creek Watershed and Churchville established a national model for land conservation and soil health through their methods of reforestation, composting, terracing, and the use of cover crops. Lord's legacy continues: farmers have been active in the leadership of the Deer Creek Watershed Association since the association's founding in 1967. The roots of today’s sustainable agricultural movement were in response to the industrialization of farming and the post-WWI agriculture crisis. While this period witnessed food surpluses, there was environmental degradation due to extreme soil loss, the Dustbowl crisis, and the Great Depression impoverished thousands of farmers around the county. These factors demonstrate that the socio-economic health of a community is deeply linked to the health of the land. Sharon Stowers, Ph.D., RDN, Harford Community College