
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990                   TAG: 9007290125
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DANVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

PA. AMISH FARMERS SURVEY PITTSYLVANIA

A contingent of Amish farmers searching for new farmsteads surveyed Pittsylvania County this week on a rare trip away from their ancestral homes in Lancaster County, Pa., a county official said.

The religious group farms some of America's most productive land in southeastern Pennsylvania. They are descended from a pacifist sect that fled persecution in Germany during the 18th century.

Today, the Amish are noted for preserving a traditional way of life that eschews modern conveniences like electricity and automobiles.

But the farmers didn't take such a long trip in the horse-drawn buggies that are a familiar site in the Pennsylvania counties of Lancaster, York, Berks, Lebanon and Lehigh. Rather, they arrived at Fred Ingram's restaurant in two modern vans.

Ingram, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors and owner of the Crossroads Restaurant in Gretna, said the Amish asked him about land prices, crime and the quality of education.

"It would be nice if they could settle here," Ingram said. "These are the quality of people we would love to have as a part of our county community. . . . You meet people occasionally that you just know are the salt of the earth."

Aaron Johnson, a real-estate agent in Gretna who specializes in farm land, said he's had several talks with the Amish but has yet to show them any specific properties. He said the farmers were scouting a number of communities and wasn't sure how serious they are about looking for farms in Pittsylvania.

Along with livestock, wheat, corn and soybeans, Lancaster also is tobacco country. But rather than the bright leaf of Virginia, a mild Maryland-type tobacco is produced.

Richard L. Prether, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Farmers' Association, said the Amish, along with many of the other 1,100 or so farmers in Lancaster County, feel pressed by suburban sprawl and a $400-million-a-year tourist economy.

Prether said he doesn't envision any mass exodus of farmers from Lancaster, where about 1,600 Amish live, even though burgeoning land values have made it harder for them to maintain their way of life.

by CNB