[367] Lincoln County Farm Joins State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 17, 2010
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

LINCOLN COUNTY FARM JOINS STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM
109-Year-Old Scott’s Orchard Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—Scott’s Orchard in Lincoln County has been designated as a Tennessee Century Farm, reports Caneta S. Hankins, director of the Century Farms program at the Center for Historic Preservation, which is located on the MTSU campus.
Thomas M. Scott Jr. and his wife, Viola A. Scott, founded this farm in 1901, and with their seven children, they raised pecans, fetch, cotton, corn, lespedeza and cattle on their 233 acres. Scott’s Orchard is well known portions of Tennessee, northern Alabama and beyond for its varieties of apples and apple products. The farm’s first crops of apples, sold both wholesale and retail, were produced in 1927 and the original apple barn was constructed about 1930.
The second-generation owners of the farm were Thomas and Viola’s seven children and their spouses. Within two months of their inheritance, Roy L. Scott bought his sibling’s shares to own the entire 233 acres of the family farm. He and wife Martha, along with their two sons, James Larry and Thomas Auburn Scott, raised apples, peaches, cotton, corn, soybeans and cows.
Today, James Larry, Joan Scott, Thomas Auburn and Kay Scott own the farm and established business. On 192 acres of the original farm, as well as another 800-plus acres, they raise not only apples, but also peaches, corn, soybeans, watermelons, pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers.
Additionally, three generations currently live on the farm, including Roy and Martha; Larry and Joan, along with their son, Kevin; and Tommy and Kay.
Will Scott, a student at Lincoln County High School, prepared the Century Farm application for his family.
Scott’s Orchard is the 23rd Century Farm to be certified in Lincoln County, Hankins said.

About the Century Farms Program

The Century Farm Program recognizes the contributions of Tennessee residents who have continuously owned, and kept in production, family land for at least 100 years. Since 1984, the CHP at MTSU has been a leader in the important work of documenting Tennessee’s
agricultural heritage and history through the Tennessee Century Farm Program, and continues to administer this program.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture began the Tennessee Century Farm Program in 1976 as part of the nation’s bicentennial. Today, the TDA provides a metal outdoor sign, noting either 100, 150 or 200 years of “continuous agricultural production” to Century Farm families.

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To be considered for eligibility, a farm must be owned by the same family for at least 100 years; must produce $1,000 revenue annually; must have at least 10 acres of the original farm; and one owner must be a resident of Tennessee.
“The Century Farmers represent all the farm families of Tennessee,” Hankins said, “and their contributions to the economy, and to the social, cultural and agrarian vitality of the state, both past and present, is immeasurable. Each farm is a Tennessee treasure.”
For more information about the Century Farms Program, please visit its Web site at http://histpres.mtsu.edu/histpres. The Center for Historic Preservation also may be contacted via mail at Box 80, MTSU, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 37132, or by telephone at 615-898-2947.


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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To interview the farm’s owners or request jpegs of the farm, please contact the CHP directly at 615-898-2947.



With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.