Crop

The Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships on the Cooper River in Camden County this week have drawn hundreds of rowers from all across the country. About 40 colleges and universities were invited to send teams. The competition is a battle among the cream of the crop. Races will continue through Saturday. It's the fourth time the event has been held on the Cooper River. The championships date back to 1895.

Chase Church, son of the late U.S. Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, was sentenced to six to 23 months in prison yesterday in Chester County Court for growing hallucinogenic "magic mushrooms. " Testifying at a sentencing hearing before President Judge Leonard Sugerman, Church, 29, of Bethesda, Md., apologized to his friends and family, saying he had "no criminal intent in the growth of these mushrooms. " Sugerman sentenced Church to Chester County Prison, fined him $1,000 and court costs, and required that he serve 200 hours of community service upon parole.

A fire that began early yesterday at the Harvest Fresh Mushroom farm burned until dawn, turning half of an indoor farming complex into a pile of rubble. Chester County Deputy Fire Marshal Charles Owens said firefighters from Kennett Square, Avondale, Delaware County, and New Castle County, Del., finally extinguished the blaze shortly before 6 a.m. Owens said that no one was injured in the fire and that the building was vacant when firefighters arrived. He said that a cause had yet to be determined and that investigation would continue.

They faced a summer of extremes, with heavy rains and hot, dry spells. They fought a nasty fungus, downpours from Hurricane Ernesto and, as always, voracious deer, munching away at their bottom line. Now at harvest, many farmers across Pennsylvania and New Jersey say their crop may not be the payoff they hoped for - but consumers will still see plenty of pumpkins, possibly at higher prices. In Zionsville, Lehigh County, the yield at Dan Schantz Farm & Greenhouse L.L.C. "will probably be 60 to 65 percent of what it should be," said Denny Heilman, a partner in the business, which has 550 acres of pumpkins as well as two markets - in Allentown and Bethlehem.

In layman's terms, it's a classic case of "Oops. " In asking a Bucks County judge to reconfigure the voting areas in the Pennsbury School District, a civic group accidentally submitted documents revealing that it was targeting members of the school board. An internal memo and a letter to the state association of teachers' unions zeroed in on board Vice President Simon Campbell, a staunch union critic. Provided "the opportunity to cut off the head of the snake by denying Campbell a seat to run for, why not go for the kill?"

They're obscured in vast fields of leafy vines where they're slowly changing color from lighter hues to blush. Deeper reds will appear in a few weeks, just before the autumn harvest. Across historic Whitesbog in Burlington County and at 34 other New Jersey farms, cranberries are thriving. The state's production is expected to increase about 5 percent this year. That rosy forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture came this week as officials projected a 10 percent drop in the nation's cranberry output and a steady rise in worldwide demand.

Crop art - the planting and plowing of crops in artistic patterns - has made the leap from agri-artistic oddity to tourist attraction in southern New York's Dutchess County. Through the end of this month, the county is promoting 14 examples of crop art on county farms and laying claim to the title of crop-art capital. The field art ranges in size from the 1/2-acre "Daisy the Cow" to the 18-acre "Green Apple With Worm. " Some of the patterns can be viewed from the ground; others are best seen from the air. One of the county's attractions is the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, from which biplane rides are offered.

As a prime crop of New Jersey peaches rolls into markets around the region, Gloucester County is preparing to showcase these fuzzy fruits that over the years have brought millions of agriculture dollars to the area. Along with several varieties of the fruit, peach lovers will find fresh peach ice cream and peach cobbler at the New Jersey Peach Festival in Mullica Hill Thursday through Sunday. "Peaches are a large commodity and large part of the community," said John Rigolizzo, president of the New Jersey Farm Bureau.

It was Reggie Beauchamp who thought up the idea of topping off the Billy Penn statue for a special event - and that was not the World Series. The year was 1952. The stunt was just one of many that Beauchamp, then director of special events for the Evening Bulletin, concocted to catch people's attention. He wanted to remind Philadelphians of Fire Prevention Week. So he enlisted a city engineer, and the two climbed up City Hall, to the brim of Penn's hat, and topped it with a nine-foot firefighter helmet.