
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 10, 1990                   TAG: 9007100151
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

NEW FARMERS FEWER, FINANCIALLY BETTER OFF

A profile of U.S. agriculture shows farmers are moving toward the 21st century with a financial condition much improved from a few years ago.

But the report issued last week by the Agriculture Department also further nailed down an old trend showing that farm numbers are still declining and that big superfarms continue to grow.

"The proportion of farms that are financially vulnerable today is half that of 1985," the report said. "Farmland prices have stabilized and are beginning to rise."

The number of farms in the United States "continued to decline throughout the 1980s as they have, almost unabated, since 1935," the report said. According to the 1987 census of agriculture, there were just over 2 million farms, down 7 percent from 1982, when the previous census was taken.

- Associated Press

by CNB