Variations from year to year in rainfall, temperature and light
conditions cause a large variation in yield per acre and, consequently,
total production. During the 10-year period, 1952-53 to 1961-62, average
yield for sweet corn in the state ranged from 63 hundredweights per acre in
1956-57 and 1958-59 to 95 hundredweights in 1954-55. Total production in
the 1955-56 season on 37,500 acres harvested was 3,384,000 hundredweights,
compared to 2,701,000 hundredweights on 42,700 harvested acres in 1956-57.
Because of the location of sweet corn production in the state, weather may
have a much greater effect on yield per acre in one area than in another.
Also, one farmer may lose his crop completely while another farmer in the
same or nearby area may suffer little or no damage. In the 1960-61 season
the average yields per acre for the winter crop were 51.6 hundredweights per
acre in Palm Beach County and 76.9 hundredweights per acre in Other South
Florida. For the spring crop in the same season yields averaged 42
hundredweights in North Florida, 120.5 hundredweights in Zellwood and 77.7
hundredweights in Palm Beach County. Variations in temperature and humidity
cause variation in the number of days between planting and maturity of a
crop as well as in the incidence of disease. Late spring yields are usually
higher than yields of fall and winter sweet corn.

 Losses in planted acreage may result from weather or from insect
and disease infestation. Florida losses have ranged from 2,200 acres in
the 1961-62 season to 11,700 acres in the 1957-58 season and have averaged
5,600 acres per year since 1952-53. Price considerations may cause
abandonment of some production. Such losses have occurred in three of the
past 10 seasons. They ranged from 33,000 hundredueights in 1959-60 to
180,000 hundredweights in 1957-58. Average economic abandonment for the
period 1952-53 to 1961-62 has been 32,800 hundredweights. All such losses
have occurred when season average prices were below $4.50 per hundredweight
at the shipping point.7


 Economic Trends in Commercial Sweet
 Corn Production

 Commercial production of sweet corn in Florida during the past 10
 seasons has ranged from 30,400 acres in 1952-53 to 48,900 acres harvested
 in 1958-59. There has been a decrease in acreage harvested since the
 1958-59 season. Average acreage harvested during the 1959-60 to 1961-62
 period was 40,500 acres.8

 The acreage of sweet corn for fall harvest increased from 900 in
 1952 to 9,900 in 1958. In 1961 there were 7,900 acres for fall harvest.
 Winter harvested acreage has ranged from 2,300 acres in 1958, when nearly


 7USDA, AMS, "Florida Vegetable Crops," Vol. XVII, 1961 and unpub-
 lished data, 1962.

 8Appendix Table 1.