Florida contributed 155K of the farms and 18% of the land in farms in Florida, 

 but in 1978, it contributed only 7% and 15.9%. In 1954-78, Charlotte, Collier, 

 Monroe, and Pasco Counties reported increases in the number of farms, and only 

 Manatee and Sarasota Counties reported an increase in fanm acreage. The 

 decl ine in the number of farms between 1954 and 1978 can be attributed to a 

 change in the definition of a farm and economic factors. Since 1974, the 

 Bureau of the Census has defined a farm as any place with sales of at least 

 $1,000 in agricultural products in the previous year. Before 1974 a farm was 

 defined as any place of 10 acres or more with sales of at least $50 the pre- 

 vious year, or any place of less than 10 acres with at least $250 of sales in 

 the previous year. These differences make it difficult to compare the number 

 and area of farmlands before and after 1974, but the trends are still distin- 

 guishable. Economic factors such as the rising cost of production and farm 

 size are discussed later in this report. 



For socioeconomic purposes, the composition of annual farm sales or sale 

 receipts is highly useful (Table 9). Although the acreages of the State and 

 Southwest Florida are widely different, the percentage of farms in the same 

 category are remarkably similar. Nationally the smallest class of farms 

 (farms reporting less than $2,500 in annual sales) decreased in number by 28% 

 from 1954 to 1978. 



In Southwest Florida, only Manatee and Sarasota Counties reported in- 

 creases in the average acreage per farm in 1954-78, but in 1974-78, six of the 

 counties reported increases in average acreage. Another meaningful socioeco- 

 nomic measure of agriculture is the annual sales of farms. The distribution 

 of farm sales for the region and State are given in Table 9. In 1974, 60% of 

 the farms had farm sales exceeding $2,500, but in 1978, the percentage in- 

 creased to 70% (U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Census, 1954-81). 



In 1954-78, when the number of farms and farm acreage were falling, the 

 value of the farms (land and buildings) increased. In current dollars, the 

 1978 value of Southwest Florida farms was $2.5 billion which was 16% of the 



Table 9. Number of farms and percent (in parentheses) of farm sales in dif- 

 ferent income categories in Southwest Florida in 1978 (adapted from prelim- 

 inary data of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census 1981). 



Area or Under 



State $2,000 $2,000 to $2,499 $2,500 to $4,999 



Southwest Florida 6,127 (69) 1,843 (30) 897 (15) 



Florida Total 49,165 (73) 15,956 (36) 6,262 (14) 



$5,000 to $9,999 $10,000 to $19,999 $20,000 



Southwest Florida 803 (13) 672 (11) 1,912 (31) 



Florida Total 5,432 (14) 4,733 (11) 11,782 (25) 



101 



