The Agricultural Atlas of the United States presents the 

 Nation's agriculture graphically illustrated by dot and mul- 

 ticolor pattern maps. The maps provide displays on size 

 and type of farm, land use, farm tenure, market value of 

 products sold, crops harvested, livestock inventories, and 

 other characteristics of farms. This report will be published 

 as volume 2, part 1. 



The Coverage Evaluation report provides estimates of 

 the completeness of the 1987 Census of Agriculture for 

 the United States, geographic regions, and selected States 

 and groups of States. Estimates with their associated 

 sample reliability are provided for farms not on the mail list, 

 farms classified as nonfarms, duplicate farms, and non- 

 farms classified as farms. This report will be published as 

 volume 2, part 2. 



The Ranking of States and Counties report ranks the 

 leading States and counties for selected items in the 1987 

 census and provides comparative data from the 1982 

 census. This report will be published as volume 2, part 3. 



A new publication on Government Payments and Mar- 

 ket Value of Agricultural Products Sold presents 1 987 data 

 for the United States and each State. The U.S. table has a 

 format similar to volume 1, U.S. table 52 and presents 

 summary data by size of farm. This report will be published 

 as volume 2, part 5. 



DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS 



The following definitions and explanations provide a 

 more detailed description of the terms used in this publi- 

 cation than are available in the tables or on the report form. 

 For an exact wording of the questions on the 1987 census 

 report forms and the information sheet which accompa- 

 nied these forms, see appendix D. Most definitions of 

 terms are the same as those used in earlier censuses. The 

 more important exceptions are also noted here. 



Farms or farms reporting — The term "farms" or "farms 

 reporting" in the presentation of data denotes the number 

 of farms reporting the item. For example, if there are 3,710 

 farms in a State and 842 of them had 28,594 cattle and 

 calves, the data for those farms reporting cattle and calves 

 would appear as: 



Cattle and calves- 



- -farms- - 842 



number- - 28,594 



Land in farms— The acreage designated in the tables 

 as "land in farms" consists primarily of agricultural land 

 used for crops, pasture, or grazing. It also includes wood- 

 land and wasteland not actually under cultivation or used 

 for pasture or grazing, provided it was part of the farm 

 operator's total operations. Large acreages of woodland or 

 wasteland held for nonagricultural purposes were deleted 

 from individual reports during the processing operations. 

 Land in farms includes acres set aside under annual 

 commodity acreage programs as well as acres in the 

 Conservation Reserve Program for places meeting the 

 farm definition. 



Land in farms is an operating unit concept and includes 

 land owned and operated as well as land rented from 

 others. Land used rent free was to be reported as land 

 rented from others. All grazing land, except land used 

 under government permits on a per-head basis, was 

 included as "land in farms" provided it was part of a farm 

 or ranch. Land under the exclusive use of a grazing 

 association was to be reported by the grazing association 

 and included as land in farms. All land in Indian reserva- 

 tions used for growing crops or grazing livestock was to be 

 included as land in farms. Land in reservations not reported 

 by individual Indians or non-Indians was to be reported in 

 the name of the cooperative group that used the land. In 

 some instances, an entire Indian reservation was reported 

 as one farm. 



Land area — The approximate land area of counties and 

 States represents the total land area as determined by 

 records and calculations as of January 1, 1988. These 

 data are updated periodically; however, the acreages 

 shown for 1987 are essentially the same as for 1982. Any 

 differences between the land area for 1 987 and 1 982 are 

 due to annexations and other changes affecting county 

 boundaries. 



Land in two or more counties— With few exceptions, 

 the land in each farm was tabulated as being in the 

 operator's principal county. The principal county was defined 

 as the one where the largest value of agricultural products 

 was raised or produced. It was usually the county contain- 

 ing all or the largest proportion of the land in the farm or 

 viewed by the respondent as his/her principal county. For 

 a limited number of Midwest and Western States, this 

 procedure has resulted in the allocation of more land in 

 farms to a county than the total land area of the county. To 

 minimize this distortion, separate reports were required for 

 large farms identified from the 1982 census as having 

 more than one farm unit. Other reports received showing 

 land in more than one county were separated into two or 

 more reports if the data would substantially affect the 

 county totals. 



Value of land and buildings— Respondents were asked 

 to report their estimate of the current market value of land 

 and buildings owned, rented or leased from others, and 

 rented or leased to others. Market value refers to the value 

 the land and buildings would sell for under current market 

 conditions. If the value of land and buildings was not 

 reported, it was estimated using the average value of land 

 and buildings from a similar farm in the same geographic 

 area. 



1987 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE 



APPENDIX A A-3 



