The closings include Quality Farm's Central Tractor Farm & Country stores, which operated in Union Township in Lawrence County. That store closed last week and a store spokesman said the inventory would be moved to Quality Farm's Hempfield Township and Butler stores.

Headquartered in Muskegon, Mich., Quality Farm has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. No final closing date for any of the stores has been scheduled and it wasn't known how many employees would lose their jobs.

Tractor Supply Co., which operates a store in Hermitage and near Meadville, along with Great American Group, Gordon Bros. Retail Partners LLC and DJM Asset Management LLC formed a joint venture to buy the assets of Quality Farm Stores Inc.

The venture, which is unnamed, is responsible for liquidating merchandise in the Quality Farm stores. Liquidation sales are under way.

Although Tractor Supply Co. said it expects to reopen 85 of Quality Farm's closed stores in the TSC format by mid-2002, the store sites were not identified this morning. A Tractor Supply spokesman didn't return a phone call this morning.

Based in Nashville, Tenn., Tractor Supply is a farm and gardening retailer which operates 323 stores in 28 states.