Free Republic

For something so vital to the game of baseball, dirt sure does get a bad rap. Players spend far more time on the dirt in the batter's box, pitcher's mound and infield than they do on grass, but no one ever recalls their first visit to Yankee Stadium with a teary-eyed description of the base paths. And they didn't call the Kevin Costner movie "Dirt of Dreams." Yet to hear a Warren County farmer explain it, making the perfect baseball dirt is an art. Meet Jim Kelsey of Independence Township, the DaVinci of Dirt. He supplies the reddish/orange clay that...

Urban 'farmers' reap benefits of subsidies Even though he lives in a city that has 17,857 people per square mile and actually drives a truck for a living, Donald Jacobs, 65, of Paterson, is a farmer, according to the federal government.Because he is a farmer, Jacobs receives a subsidy each year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the crops he hires someone to plant on 13 acres he owns in Salem County.President Bush's 2006 budget takes aim at farm subsidies, proposing to cut all crop and dairy payments by 5 percent and limit the total per-farmer payout to $260,000....

A Wantage dairy farmer has become the first Sussex County farmer -- and only the fourth ever from New Jersey -- to be named a winner in the 49th annual National Outstanding Young Farmer competition. He also is the first dairy farmer in New Jersey to win the award, said Lynne Richmond, a spokeswoman with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. "The recognition means a lot to me. I was just happy to be there," said Jeff VanderGroef, who operates the 337-acre Havendale Farm, one of the largest dairy farms in New Jersey. VanderGroef, 37, received the New Jersey 2005...