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County hog farmer who also raises chickens, com and wheat, expects a developer to knock on his door the day a sewer line is run through his township, located about halfway between Reading and Lancaster just beyond the expanding Philadelphia suburbs.
Augsburger is one of more than 100 landowners who have submitted applications to sell agricultural conservation easements — which permanently protect farmland from development — to the Lancaster County Agricultural Land Preservation Board.
By covering his 350-acres farm with an easement, he hopes to create a block of protected farmland that can withstand the lure of development dollars and prevent the string of nuisance complaints that follow when new rural residents confront the noises, odors and 16-hour days of farming.
Augsburger can expect a long wait. The county board only has funds to purchase 15 easements a year. Farmers applying today may have to wait seven years before negotiations can every begin.
Other localities — in California, Washington, Michigan, Kentucky and throughout the Northeast — find themselves similarly hard pressed. As an American Farmland Trust report pointed out last week, 14 states have spent $665 million to purchase agricultural conservation easements*to protect 396,000 acres of farmland since 1977. But the demand far exceeds available funds. Six farmers are turned away for every one who enrolls; three acres of farmland are
93.2%