buildings rented to someone else, property taxes paid 
on other property not associated with the 
horticultural operation, income, social security, and 
excise taxes are excluded. 
Rent and lease expenses for land, buildings, 
machinery, etc. Data were collected for the cost of 
renting or leasing land, buildings, machinery, and 
vehicles for the horticultural production operation. 
Rent paid for operator’s dwelling or other non- 
horticultural property is excluded. 
Repair, supplies, and maintenance costs. These 
expenses include all costs for repair and upkeep of 
machinery, vehicles, buildings, fences, and other 
equipment used in the horticultural operation. 
Expenses for repairs to vehicles not used in the 
horticultural operation (e.g., landscaping, retail sales, 
etc.), construction of new buildings, or additions to 
existing buildings are excluded. 
Seeds, plants, vines, trees, etc. purchased. These 
expenses include the cost of all seeds, bulbs, plants, 
propagation materials, and trees. Excluded were 
items purchased for immediate resale or the value of 
seed grown on the operation. 
Utilities purchased for this operation. These data are 
for the farm share cost of electricity, telephone 
charges, internet fees, and water purchased. Utilities 
not purchased for horticultural production are 
excluded. 
Horticultural specialty operation. A horticultural 
specialty operation is defined by the North American 
Industry Classification System (NAICS) as an 
operation that primarily grows crops of any kind 
under cover and/or nursery stock and flowers. These 
crops include nursery stock, shrubbery, flower seeds 
and plants, foliage plants, bulbs, cultivated florist 
greens, mushrooms, short rotation woody crops, 
Christmas trees, aquatic plants, cuttings, plug 
seedlings, liners, tissue cultured plantlets, 
prefinished plants, sod grown under cover and/or in 
the open, and food crops grown under protection. 
Although considered by the NAICS as horticultural 
operations, mushroom operations are excluded from 
the census because more detailed information is 
collected for them on NASS’ annual Mushroom 
survey. This is a census of all mushroom producers 
B - 6 Appendix B 
in the United States and contains more information 
on more types of mushrooms than was collected in 
previous censuses. 
Operations that grow vegetables and fruits in the 
open are not defined by the NAICS as horticultural 
operations and are excluded from the census of 
horticultural specialties. Operations that grow grass 
seeds in the open are not considered horticultural 
operations by the NAICS and are excluded from the 
census. While vegetable seed and vegetable 
transplant operations are not considered horticultural 
operations by the NAICS, the data for these 
operations were captured in the census for continuity 
with previous censuses. 
Hybrid poplar. See Short rotation woody crops. 
Kind of business. All operators were classified by 
kind of business. This is composed of 17 categories 
based on the grower’s principal source of income. A 
rule of more than 50 percent was used as a 
determining factor. When a specified commodity 
group comprised more than 50 percent of an 
operation's total sales, the operation was then 
identified under that category. An operation was 
classified as “other” when the sales in any one 
commodity group did not equal more than 50 percent 
of the total sales. The 17 categories used to identify 
an operational kind of business are: 
Annual bedding/garden plants 
Aquatic plants 
Cut Christmas trees 
Cut cultivated greens 
Cut flowers and cut lei flowers 
Dried bulbs, corms, rhizomes, or tubers 
Flower seeds produced for sale 
Foliage plants for indoor or patio use 
Food crops grown under protection 
Potted herbaceous perennial plants 
Nursery stock 
Potted flowering plants for indoor or patio use 
Transplants for commercial vegetable and 
strawberry production 
Sod, sprigs, or plugs 
Propagative horticultural materials, bareroot, 
and unfinished plants 
Vegetable seeds produced 
Other kind of business 
2012 Census of Agriculture 
USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service 
