The Nation - News from March 4, 1986

American agriculture, trapped in a winter of despair for the last five years, is likely to see its first signs of spring this year as the drop in land values slows and declining farm income levels off, according to the Agriculture Department. While stopping short of predicting immediate recovery, its report seems to indicate that the long-lived rural depression is bottoming out, said Ronald Meekhof, a principal author of the 1986 financial outlook report.