Survey Methods



     The list sampling frame maintained by the Michigan Agricultural Statistics
Service was the primary source of names of commercial fruit farms.  Commercial
meant any operation with at least one acre of any tree fruit or one-third of
an acre of any berry.  Data were collected for every qualifying fruit
operation.
     Questionnaires and cover letters were mailed to fruit farms on the list
frame in October 2000.  Growers who responded to the 1997 Fruit Survey were
also sent a printout of their responses to that inventory.  Data collection
continued until the spring of 2001.
     The apple section of the survey instrument is shown at the end of this
section.  Farmers were asked to complete, by block (vineyard or plantation),
the block name or number, the county, township and section where that block
was located, variety, rootstock or trellis, year of planting, trees, acres and
spacing for each variety in the block.  Each line within a block represents a
different variety, rootstock, year planted or plant spacing.
     These detailed data were obtained for 86 percent of the farms.  Twenty-nine
percent were returned by mail, 47 percent were completed by telephone, and 10
percent were done by personal interview.  Eleven percent refused to do the
inventory, and three percent could not be contacted.  Estimates of total acres
of each fruit were made from various sources for the farms for which detailed
block records were not available.
     The completion rates of the detailed data varied by region and by fruit
type.  They were calculated by dividing the total acres with complete block
data by those acres summed with estimated acres for refusals and
inaccessibles.  These rates are shown as percentages in the accompanying
table.   Inverses of those completion rates were used to expand detailed data
to total acreage totals by fruit and district.  The higher the completion rate
for a district and fruit, the more accurate are the detailed data shown in the
two-way and three-way tables of this bulletin.  



                                  Completion rates: Percent of acreage completed by fruit and district
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                  :       : Blue- : Bram-  :Cherries,:Cherries,: Cran-  :        : Necta- :        :        :        : Straw- :
     District     :Apples :berries:  bles  :  sweet  :  tart   :berries : Grapes : rines  :Peaches : Pears  : Plums  :berries : Total
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Northwest         : 80.9    92.6     97.9     77.5      82.0     100.0     85.3     83.3     69.8     73.4     75.0     96.6     80.8
                  :
Oceana-Mason      : 82.1
Grand Rapids      : 76.6
West Central      : 77.8    85.5     64.4     83.0      80.9     100.0    100.0   
 93.3     79.7     82.9     70.4     77.2     79.3
                  :
Southwest         : 81.6    92.1     69.7     88.0      82.4      84.8     88.5     87.6     81.0     91.2     86.2     94.6     86.4
                  :
East              : 78.3    93.0     92.7     75.6      69.5     100.0     96.9    100.0     62.5     72.4     55.6     80.0     79.5
                  :
Michigan          : 79.2    89.8     81.9     78.5      81.7      96.0     88.4     88.5     79.2     86.5     77.2     84.3     82.3
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