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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995                   TAG: 9507050098
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

Virginia farmers planted 110,000 acres of cotton this year, more than doubling last year's 42,200 acres and only 3,000 acres less than the all-time high cotton planting in 1924, the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service reported.

Growers in Southeastern Virginia have found that cotton has provided more revenue than corn in recent years, the agency said. Virginia's corn planting this year is the smallest on record at 450,000 acres, 10 percent less than last year.

In tobacco, Virginia's top cash crop, a total harvest of 46,980 acres, up 1 percent from last year, is expected. Flue-cured tobacco is up 1,000 acres but burley is down 300 acres.

- Staff report

LADD Furniture to sell 4 companies

LADD Furniture Inc., High Point, N.C., parent of American of Martinsville, said it plans to sell four of its 12 companies: Daystrom Furniture of South Boston; Fournier Furniture, with a plant in Russell County; Lea Lumber & Plywood; and the Brown Jordan casual furniture line.

As a result of the sale, restructuring the remaining eight businesses and increasing the company's reserves to reflect a softness in the residential furniture industry, LADD said it will incur a non-cash after-tax charge of about $26 million in the second quarter. After the sale, LADD expects to have annual sales of about $520 million, compared with more than $600 million now.

- Associated Press

Briefly ...

Because of the Independence Day holiday, banks and other financial institutions are closed and are expected to wait until Wednesday to post rates paid on savings accounts and certificates. The weekly chart noting those rates will be published Thursday rather than Wednesday.

Domestic coal production totaled 20.1 million tons in the week ending June 24, up 8 percent from 18.6 million tons the previous week but down from 19.3 million tons in the same week last year, the U.S. Department of Energy reported Monday. Domestic coal production so far this year is 486 million tons, 3 percent ahead of last year's at this time.