Section 19 (b), Regulation No. 9 and,
indirectly, the amendments to Articles
15 and 43 of the Declaration of Rights
have recently been before the Maryland
Court of Appeals in Supervisor of Assess-
ments for Montgomery County v. Alsop.8
The Court there held that the grazing
and feeding of a herd of more than forty
head of beef and dairy cattle on the land
in question throughout the year is a
"farm or agricultural use" within the
meaning of the constitutional and statu-
tory provisions. The land in question
was used by a gentleman farmer who
did not personally farm his land, but per-
mitted his neighbors to graze beef and
cattle on his land and permitted one of
his tenants to cultivate a truck garden as
a sideline.
The court below, the Maryland Tax
Court, had upheld the assessor's refusal
to classify the land in question as a bona
fide farm on the grounds :
"That the owner, seeking quiet and
solitude, acquired a former farm as a
country estate, and engaged in no bona
fide operations;
"That the owner, in order to main-
tain the property in proper condition
as economically as possible and for no
other reason, permitted a neighboring
farmer to graze his cattle on the prop-
erty, and to use some of the buildings
thereon in return for keeping the hay
cut and doing general maintenance
work on and about the property, with-
out monetary consideration;
"That the owner rents the farm
tenant houses to tenants at a reduced
rental in order to obtain part time
assistance from them in maintaining
the farm and, as a matter of conven-
ience to the owner, in tilling a small
truck garden."
8 232 Md. 188 (1963).
270
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In reversing the Tax Court, the Court
of Appeals stated:
"As we see it, the question here is
not whether the owner and taxpayer
is personally engaged in a bona fide
farm operation or is permitting a
neighbor to use the land for grazing
cattle without monetary consideration,
but instead is whether the land is ac-
tively devoted to a 'farm or agricultural
use.' We think it was so used.
"Applying only the specified statu-
tory standards to the facts, it appears
that the land in question is zoned rural
residential and that it, as well as the
surrounding lands, is primarily used
for farming; that the present and past
use of the land is and was agricultural ;
that the land is used as a pasture for
grazing forty or more beef and dairy
cattle and for the production of hay
to feed such cattle during the winter
months ; and that the proportion of the
farm used for agricultural purposes is
far in excess of the proportion used as
a curtilage to the main dwelling and
as yards and vegetable gardens appur-
tenant to the rented tenant houses.
This was enough to require a finding
that the land was in fact a bona fide
farm, without resorting to any of the
other criteria set forth. in Regulation
9, some of which seem to have a lim-
ited use as a guide in determining
whether or not a particular tract of
land is a farm within the meaning
of the constitutional and statutory pro-
visions. In the instant case it seems
clear that the grazing and feeding of a
herd of more than forty head of beef
and dairy cattle on the land in ques-
tion throughout the year is a 'farm or
agricultural use' within the meaning of
the constitutional and statutory pro-
visions."8
9 See 3 am. jur. 2d Agriculture §§ 1, 2
(1962).
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