of the stable counties that stands out is the relatively large decline in the number of farms
in these counties, this is a function of the fact that we required sales to be stable and at
least stability in either farms or farmland. As is apparent from the Figure 1, a large
proportion of the stable counties actually were experiencing farm number declines. A
case might be made to suggest that intensification is actually occurring in these counties,
but the fact that farmland remained stable in these counties we opted to not group them in
the intensification category. Sales grew substantially in the intensification counties
while, compared to modest declines in farm numbers and farmland on average. Sales
grew quite substantially in the growth category, although we will note the magnitude of
this increase is reduced modestly with the removal of two influential data points.
Our identification of very specific trajectory generally conformed to our
hypothesis. We now briefly examine some of the bivariate associations between
trajectory and select population and commodity related characteristics of the local
agriculture.
Trajectories and Select Population & Commodity Attributes
Population
Mean population characteristics of each of our five trajectories are identified in
Table 5. As expected, population densities were quite substantial in the counties
experiencing decline. The level of population growth was not exceptional, but when one
accounts for the fact that these counties have initial populations substantially larger than
the other categories, the amount of population growth they are experiencing is
substantial. The growth counties generally had the smallest local populations and the
lowest population densities, which suggest that the urban pressures in these counties may
Convention