Photo by Bill Green Terry Poole of the University of Maryland Extension office teaches a gardening class.

Poole, principal agent emeritus of the University of Maryland Extension Service, holds a class, Beginning a Successful Small Farm Operation, each year at the Frederick County Extension Office at 330 Montevue Lane in Frederick .

The six-week, 12-hour course is designed to provide basic knowledge needed by new and inexperienced farmers as they begin to develop farm enterprises.

This year's 56 students was Poole's largest class. Its popularity is no surprise to Frederick County Master Gardener Lee Royer, who took the class many years ago.

"It's very helpful for the first-time farmer," he said. "He talks about everything -- from finances, how to draw up a business plan, soils and you meet other people who are already farming and some looking to enter other farming enterprises."

The first part of the two-part small farm basic course ended recently. It focused on cover crops -- usually a legume, planted to keep nutrients from leaching, soil from eroding and land from weeding over during the winter.

Farming involves a lot of education, Walkersville resident John Gorecki said.

"There's a lot to learn about the soils, feeds and how to get the most out of everything," Gorecki said. "Everything is a science."

The course offers an excellent overview of farming, said John T. Flynn of Frederick .

Flynn has always been interested specifically in forestry, and in agriculture generally, he said.

"I hope someday to be able to, in a part-time way, start a small farm operation," Flynn said.

Poole's class, a national award-winning program, received national recognition for its innovation and effectiveness in its teaching materials and methods, which are currently being used in 38 other states.

The free program received the inaugural Young, Beginning or Farmers and Ranchers Program award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents in 2004 in Orlando, Fla., Poole said.

Follow-up surveys of people who have taken the course have shown that the series helped participants to better understand agriculture and more clearly define what they want to accomplish on their farm.

"This program is not only a great way to learn the basics of farming, but is also a great opportunity to begin meeting and networking with other folks like yourself, who are following their dream of beginning a small farm enterprise," Poole said.

The small farm course next spring will feature two evenings on free-range poultry, two evenings on farm financial management and developing a business plan and two evenings on grazing livestock.

"All of this depends on the county commissioners not cutting the funds that are used to fund my position," he said.

Poole also is the only person who certifies farmers in Frederick County to write their own nutrient management plans.

"As of September 2009, there were 110 farmers in the state certified to write their own plans, Frederick had 101 of them and this number doesn't count the 11 who were certified last night," he said Friday. "This is the most successful nutrient management program in the state and I'm the only one who does it. If I'm gone, this program dies, as well as the small farm program."