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Two York County Farms Gear Up For Free Farm Tour
BY JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
STEWARTSTOWN - Two
Stewartstown area fanners are
gearing up to welcome an
estimated 1,000 visitors on June 20,
as hosts for the Eighth Annual
Free Farm Tdur, sponsored by the
York County Farmers Association.
Rolling out the proverbial red
carpet for the mostly urban
visitors will be Barton’s Fruit
Farm and the Anderson Dairy
Farm.
Headquarters for the tour is at
Barton’s Fruit Farm. From there,
visitors will board hay wagons for
a scenic tour of the southern York
County countryside and the An-
. . „ . Jl - operate a 50-head milking
nerd and 100-acre crops farm near Stewartstown, which will
oe open for Farm Tour visitors on June 20.
derson dairy farming operation.
Tour guides on each wagon explain
the farms’ operations and crop
productions seen along the hayride
route.
Fruit production is a long-time
tradition at Barton’s Fruit Farms,
just south of Stewartstown. Neatly
manicured orchards surround the
present modem retail market and
bakeshop, operated by John S. and
Norma M. Barton and their son
Richard.
John’s father, John C. Barton,
and a partner purchased the or
chard operation in 1941. After
earning his college degree in 1952,
John S. joined his dad in business,
becoming a partner in 1965.
Originally, the orchard was
primarily engaged in wholesaling,
packing and sending apples and
peaches to markets all over the
East Coast. In recent years,
retailing has become the major
focus of the 250-acre operation.
And, although total acreage is
somewhat less than in past
decades, the crops are more
diversified.
Apples and peaches continue as
mainstay crops, with smaller
plantings of cherries, pears, plums
and nectarines. In 1979, the Bar
tons expanded the farm market,
and began adding more vegetables
to their line of fresh items. The
addition of a greenhouse to the
farm in 1975 expanded the retail
line to include bedding annuals,
started vegetable plants, hanging
baskets and mixed decorative
pots. Success of the bedding plant
line resulted in the addition of
three more greenhouses in the
ensuing years.
The Bartons’ son, Richard,
became a partner in 1981 in the
expanding, diversifying, family
business. He oversees the orchard
production work, Norma works
primarily with the retail market,
and John can often be found
supervising greenhouse operations
along with tending to the endless
details of such a family farm
business.
A bake shop is the latest addition
to the market, installed less than
two years ago, and already
through a third expansion in size.
Cider, jams, jellies and home
canned peaches and plums, eggs,
home-dressed capons and turkeys
at holiday seasons, and even a
consignment country-crafts
corner, make for an attractive and
successful farm retailing venture.
Anderson
Milk production is the focus
Anderson’s dairy farm, owned and
operated by James and Mabel
Anderson and their son, James Jr.
School-age daughter, Diane, also
lends a hand at chores when
needed.
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HEALTH SUPPLIES tit-mmm
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more recent addition to the retail line at Barton's Fruit Farm,
operated by John and Richard Barton.
Anderson grew up on this family will find special attraction in the
farm, which his father purchased farm’s baby calves and domestic
about 1930. Initially the farm in- poultry, including ducks and geese
eluded a dairy herd, later phased enjoying the nearby meadowland.
out. Jim and Mabel returned A pair of riding horses and a few
dairying to the family farm, when feeder hogs round out the variety
they began shipping milk in 1968 of animals at the Anderson farm,
with 15 head. Tour wagons will begin depar-
Today, the herd numbers 50,
primarily Holsteins and a few
Brown Swiss, milked in tie stan
chions in a traditional bank bam
stable. Production from the herd is
marketed through Dairymen Inc.
Crops on the farm’s 100 acres,
plus some extra rented hay
ground, include corn, hay, wheat,
barley and oats, primarily for use
in feeding the milking herd and
replacement young stock.
Visitors, especially youngsters.
BIG SAVINGS FOR THE
DAIRYMEN...
June 15th Through June 27th
DON'T MISS ITI
TBZ*
PASTE
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*10.95
ting the Barton Farm headquar
ters at 10 a.m., and will continue
through 4 p.m., as weather and
crowds warrant. Among the
special events included at the tour
headquarters will be agri-displays
and demonstrations, country food
and crafts, drawing for a hand
made quilt, petting zoo by local 4-
H’ers, and commodity queens.
Barton’s Fruit Farm is located
oil Route 24, south of Stewart
stown, and accessible from Exit 1
of Interstate 83, via Route 851.
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