AGRICULTURE

Number of Farms Still Shrinking: The number of American farms declined by 36,000--about 2%--over the past year, though seven states registered increases, according to the Agriculture Department. The report said there are about 2.1 million farms, with total land estimated at 982.6 million acres, down slightly from 987.4 million last year. The average farm size has increased from 461 acres in 1990 to 467 in 1991. Texas held its position as the state with the most farms, despite a decline of 1,000 since last year to 185,000 farms. Missouri was second with 107,000 farms, down 1,000.