The Chester County Commissioners Thursday announced four farms with 258 acres are being preserved through Chester County and partner programs.

Included is the Wilkins Farm in London Britain Township. The estate of Elwood Wilkins, Jr. offered 126.9 acres at $6,000 per acre, just 38.2 percent of the assessed easement value. The purchase price of $761,652 amounts to a savings of $1,231,337.

The Wilkins farm is a crop farm that produces corn, alfalfa and hay. The farm is located near portions of the White Clay Creek Area Preserve and the London Britain Township Park. A portion of the farm is under consideration to be eased to the township to construct a trial with a possible link to the White Clay Preserve trail system. The farm was eased through the Chester County Challenge Grant Program.

Also, 77.4 acres of the Laurence King farm in West Fallowfield Township is being eased through Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Chester County programs. The farm is adjacent to the Wolfs Hollow County Park and produces corn, wheat, potatoes, soybeans and alfalfa. The cost per acre was $6,800 for a total of $526,932. The amount is 100 percent of the assessed value.

The M. Kathryn Conrad Farm in Honey Brook Township was eased at 90 percent of the assessed value. The total cost was $314,523 for the 27 acres. The savings was $31,452 and the farm was eased through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Chester County programs.

Conrad has lived on the farm for all of her 83 years and the farm produces corn and soybeans. Two adjacent farms have also been preserved.

The fourth property is the Marsh Creek Tree Farm, LLC. Eased through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Chester County programs is 26.7 acres of the farm. The cost per acre was $11,460, 90 percent of the assessed value, for a total of $306,752. The land produces corn and is adjacent to another 150-acre preserved farm.

All four properties are under agreement of sale and are scheduled to go to settlement by the end of 2007.