Labor. Data are reported for the number of hired 
workers, including paid family members, by the 
number of days worked. Employees not directly 
involved in the growing operation, e.g., garden 
center clerks, are excluded. 
Land, structures, and equipment. Operators were 
asked to report the current market value of land and 
buildings owned, rented, or leased from others and 
all machinery and equipment kept on the place and 
used specifically for the horticultural operation. 
Market value refers to the respondent’s estimate of 
what the land, buildings, machinery, and equipment 
would sell for under current market conditions. 
Inquiries concerning land area used for specific 
commodity groups and land area covered by 
greenhouses were included on the report form. 
Multiple cropping, such as the multiple use of the 
same area for flowering and bedding plants, will 
duplicate greenhouse space or land area in some 
instances. 
Legal status for tax purposes. All farms were 
classified by legal status in the 2014 census. In 2009 
this category was referred to as Type of ownership. 
This is a wording change only, data are comparable. 
The following classifications were used to identify 
legal status: 
• Family or individual (sole proprietor), excluding 
partnership and corporation. 
• Partnership, including family partnership. 
• Corporation, including family corporation. 
• Other - cooperative, estate or trust, institutional, 
etc. 
Lily, other. Data related to any lily not having a 
specific item code on the report form. 
Marketing channels. Respondents were instructed 
to report the percent of the total value of horticultural 
specialty crop sales through each of the listed 
marketing channels. Some respondents reported 
selling directly to consumers at wholesale prices. 
This inconsistency was permitted because the 
respondents were offering wholesale prices to 
purchasers who would normally be considered retail 
customers. Sales through marketing channels other 
than those listed on the report form were 
summarized in Other. 
2012 Census of Agriculture 
USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service 
Number of trees and nursery plants on operation 
January 1, 2015. Data were collected for nursery 
stock growing on the operation during 2014 that 
were expected to be sold in 2015 and later years. The 
data, when used with the number of trees and 
nursery plants grown and sold in 2014, show a more 
complete picture of nursery stock production. 
Nursery stock. This item includes the major 
categories of plants, such as deciduous shade and 
flowering trees, coniferous and broadleaf evergreens, 
shrubs, bushes, ground covers, fruit and nut trees, 
grapevines, small fruit plants, and vines. Finished 
plants of sale size were only reported in Nursery 
stock. Unfinished plants, such as liners, plug 
seedlings, rooted cuttings, and tissue cultured 
plantlets were collected and summarized in 
Propagative horticultural materials, bareroot, and 
unfinished plants. Nursery stock seedlings grown 
from plug seedlings, cutting, liners, or tissue cultured 
plantlets and sold as a finished product were 
included with nursery stock. 
Plants purchased from others for immediate resale or 
without growth or change to the plant were excluded. 
Evergreens grown and cut for use as Christmas trees 
were excluded. Only operations that reported nursery 
stock sold were summarized in tables containing 
value of sales for nursery stock. Operations that only 
reported area under production and trees or plants on 
operation January 1, 2015 were summarized in tables 
containing area under production and trees or plants 
on hand. 
Other. For most items in the publication tables listed 
as “Other [insert plant name the data relate to any 
of that plant type not having a specific item code on 
the report form. 
Other kind of business. 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. 
Other marketing channels. Data related to any 
marketing channels not having a specific item code 
on the report form, for example horticultural crops 
sold to brokers. 
Other orchids. Data related to any orchids not 
having a specific item code on the report form. Other 
Appendix B B - 7 
