FARM INCOME WILL DROP still more in 1956, predicts the Agriculture Department. Farm-price outlook is for a 4% drop under 1955 prices, in addition to this year's 10% slump.

LOUIS E. WOLFSON, who has taken over a dozen companies in the past three years, is picking up another. Wolfson has bought 60,000 shares (40%) of St. Louis' Scullin Steel Co., a small foundry (1954 sales: $10,822,434) making steel castings for railroad cars and ships. Wolfson's buying has helped push up Scullin stock from 23 to 42 1/2 per share.

BEER IMPORTS are climbing sharply, but few U.S. brewers are worried about the competition. Although imports have jumped 20% to 4,746,000 gals, this year, most foreign beer is so high-priced (up to 100% more than domestic brands) that its appeal is mainly in big-city luxury markets, is still less than 1% of total consumption. Biggest exporters: Canada, Germany and Holland.

CUT-RATE PORK SALES to help farmers dispose of the huge hog surplus are catching on in the Midwest. Aided by bankers and local merchants, farmers near Vinton Iowa put 20,000 Ibs. of pork on sale to consumers at prices 8-c- to 10-c- below wholesale levels, were sold out in minutes. Dozens of other towns in the hog belt are planning similar sales.

PRICE CUTS of from 15% to 20% have been made by Du Pont on nylon, Dacron and Orion. Eventual result: lower prices for synthetic rugs and clothes.

RUHR COAL MONOPOLY will be dissolved after two years of dickering among six nations in the European Coal and Steel Community. The 55 Ruhr coal producers will break up their organization, which acted as a vast sales monopoly, setting prices on 80 million tons (33% of European production) of coal annually. New plan will set up three independent and competitive agencies, all closely policed by the international group.

SUBSIDY GIVEBACK will cost T.W.A. and Pan American Airways $22 million, if the Civil Aeronautics Board follows the recommendation of its examiner. Because of "excess earnings" on profitable divisions between 1946 and 1953, T.W.A. will have to give back the full $8,715,000 in subsidies it got on unprofitable routes; Pan American's excess earnings were put at $13,490,000, but it will have to return only $2,490,000 in cash because CAB still owes it some $11 million in back payments.

BIGGEST UNDERSEA PIPELINE will be built along the Gulf Coast to gather oil from offshore fields. A syndicate of Texas oilmen have formed a new company called Offshore Gathering Corp., plan to spend $150 million for a 364-mile oil and gas line running 25 miles offshore (at a depth of 60 ft.) between Texas and Mississippi. If FPC approves, work will start next year.

OLD KING COAL is digging out of the postwar slump. After dropping to 392 million tons last year, the lowest point since 1938, output this year has climbed 20% to 462 million tons. Reasons: heavy demand by steel producers, reviving exports, and a continued rise in coal consumption by electric-power producers.

AIRLINE competition will get still another boost from the CAB, this time on the East Coast. Delta Air Lines, now the fifth biggest U.S. passenger carrier, will get a crack at bigger markets, with 2,000 more miles of routes spreading from Atlanta and New Orleans to New York. Eastern Air Lines, which has had the routes to itself, is fighting mad, promises to appeal the case.

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