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DELEGATE CASE: As I said, Delegate
Taylor, the provision here Is drafted in
broad and meaningful terms and gives the
legislature all the power that it needs to
deal with these problems, but how the legis-
lature will deal with them or what specific
answers can be given to the problems that
you have suggested is, in my judgment, a
matter of legislative concern, and not con-
stitutional dimension.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any fur-
ther questions, Delegate Taylor?
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: You say ag-
ricultural uses of land is a matter of con-
stitutional dimension —
DELEGATE CASE: For the reason I
suggested earlier, because it had a long and
somewhat interesting history in this State,
and it had been presented to the people in
1960.
This is the reason it was included in this
particular document.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Taylor.
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: Do you not
agree that this Constitution was written
about 100 years ago, and the country was
mostly rural and farm country, as was the
State of Maryland, and now we move into
another era, and of course the document
should reflect the future, and not the past.
DELEGATE CASE: I am afraid you
have misunderstood what I have said. The
provision that you directed my attention to
was written over seven years ago, not 100.
This is a very current-life subject, and this
is why it was included in the document, be-
cause it was so current, was so live, and
had been submitted to the people in such a
recent past.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any fur-
ther questions, Delegate Taylor?
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: How much
land do we have in agricultural use in the
State of Maryland, compared to the urban
areas?
DELEGATE CASE: The statistics are
available, but not in my head. I can supply
you with them if you would like to have
them, and I would be happy to do so, Dele-
gate Taylor.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kathleen
Robie.
; DELEGATE ROBIE: Mr. Chairman, I
would like to ask Mr. Case just what pro-
visions, or how do you see these laws per-
taining to the farmers that are in some of
these areas not too far away from the
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cities, but still close enough that they can
no longer get help to do their farming?
Down in Charles County, now, there are
many people in this category, and my hus-
band and I happen to be one, where we
have had a farm for years and years — in
fact, ours was in our family before the
Revolutionary War, and they had tobacco
on this farm.
Now, all of the tenants who did tobacco
farming have gone to the outlying sections
of Washington and are now building houses.
It is impossible to get a farmer.
Is this not playing into the hands of the
land sharks and the developers when you
have a place and the taxes have gone so
high? When you are making nothing on it
you cannot afford to pay the higher taxes,
so you must sell out at a very low rate, and
then the developers have quite the ad-
vantage.
DELEGATE CASE: Was that a ques-
tion?
THE CHAIRMAN: I think so.
DELEGATE CASE: Delegate Robie, I
wish I could answer that question with the
clearness and definitiveness that I know you
would like to have. I do have some difficulty
in following exactly what you want me to
respond to.
If you are suggesting whether or not the
Committee reviewed the problem from the
standpoint of the availability of help on
farms, I would have to respond that we did
not.
If, on the other hand, your question sug-
gests would a farmer who was actually
conducting a farm in close to the metro-
politan area be given the same treatment
as some other farmer, the answer is that
we did discuss this subject, and he would
be afforded the same treatment if he were
in the same class.
DELEGATE ROBIE: Perhaps I really
would like to ask you a question: Are these
farmers who have no longer — well, if they
have put their farms in the pasture-lands
and things of this kind, are they then
counted as farmers?
I know you have gone over this —
DELEGATE CASE: Oh, yes.
DELEGATE ROBIE: — but I do know
the labor market has a great deal to do
with this particular question.
DELEGATE CASE: If the land is in a
soil bank, it is a farm, if the man who owns
it is a farmer.
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