[AT] Snow

[Larry Goss]

You bring up an
interesting point, Bob -- mineral rights.  In the last 46 years of land
ownership, I have never owned any property that included the mineral
rights.  It has always been reserved by coal, gas, oil, or other mining
companies, and was often sold or leased decades prior to when I
purchased the property.  I grew up on a farm where we owned the mineral
rights.  I thought everyone lived that way.  How naive I was.

Larry

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob McNitt <nysports at frontiernet.net>
Date: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 19:20
Subject: Re: [AT] Snow
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>

> Farmer -
> 
> In many areas laying over the massive shale formations 
> containing 
> natural gas, the price of once good agricultural land is 
> skyrocketing as 
> buyers with deep pockets hope to get in on the royalties of 
> having gas 
> wells or pipelines on the land. Of course this also raises 
> assessed 
> values and land and school taxes. Common folks seeking to buy a 
> piece of 
> rural land to farm on, retire on or maybe just escape the cities 
> are 
> being left in the dust of the natural gas drilling craze. 
> Farmers in the 
> prime shale areas are being increasingly tempted to sell to 
> speculators 
> that are willing to pay top dollar for larger acreages they can 
> then 
> lease as well clause in an agreement that allows them to sell 
> portions 
> off for cluster development projects. I'm afraid if this keeps 
> up, we'll 
> soon be importing almost all of our food stuffs and the only 
> places 
> you'll see farm tractors and equipment will be in museums.
> 
> Bob
>