double between 1970-78 paralleling the behavior of farm numbers.
In the remaining five cases, however, production levels fell during
the 1970 decade. The main reason for these decreases involves
the fact that many of the new growers did not yet have trees and
plantings sufficiently mature in 1978 for harvesting. For example,
in every one of these five instances there were substantially more
"trees (plantings) not of bearing age" in 1978 than in 1970;
bananas 8,573 to 1,629; grapefruits, 158 to 88;mangoes, 1,681 to
758; oranges, 359 to 193; and plantains, 589 to 108. Although
other factors may also have played some part in the output de-
clines -- weather, pest control problems of specific crops, pilferage,


and perhaps even some data reporting distortions introduced by
the timing of the agricultural census taking -- the maturity factor
undoubtedly is central, and it certainly bodes well for future out-
put gains.

 The familiar V-shape patterns in farm number and produc-
tion growth are uniformly evident in the livestock sector. For
example, according to Table 5 the number of farms with cattle
dropped from 258 in 1950 to only 53 in 1970, and then rose
to 119 by 1978. This was the same pattern for the number of
farms with hogs, sheep, goats, horses, chickens, and other poultry.


TABLE 4


PATTERNS OF FRUIT/NUT PRODUCTION, 1950-1978


1950


Avocados
 No. Farms
 Quantity

 Bananas
 No. Farms
 Bunches

 Coconuts
 No. Farms
 Quantity

Grapefruit
 No. Farms
 Pounds

Limes/Lemons
 No. Farms
 Boxes

Mangoes
 No. Farms
 Quantity
Oranges
 No. Farms
 Quantity

Pineapples
 No. Farms
 Boxes

Plantains
 No. Farms
 Bunches


 180
 124,597


 186
 16,424


 125
 83,783


 27
 22,762


 126
 85,968


 195
959,903


 48
 24,178


 39
 570


 27
 1,223


 1960


 197
 37,945


 175
 20,539


 191
 26,107


 60
 1,375


 223
 29,860


 244
173,457


 102
 3,758


 54
 1,407


 26
 401


 1964


 154
 13,311


 156
 8,249


 160
 21,923


 57
 2,472


 167
 15,991


 187
166,061


 92
 3,927


 37
 484


 37
 596


 1970


 52
 10,026


 75
 5,411


 67
 9,702


 20
 2,742


 68
 4,815


 89
150,359


 36
 7,397


 12
 133


 15
 1,241


 1975


 129
 16,561


 115
 4,785


 161
 46,376


 60
 9,750


 176
 35,099


 182
217,807


 92
 21,055


 19
 596


 25
 284


 1978


 173
 15,472


 181
 3,232


 200
 18,033


 70
 2,738


 206
 18,368


 208
111,505


 119
 2,445


 44
 312


 38
 91


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