AGRICULTURE

Ample Harvests Seen for U.S. Field Crops: The nation’s corn, soybean and wheat farms will produce large crops this season, in contrast to the weather-decimated harvests of 1993, the U.S. Agriculture Department predicted. It forecast wheat production at 2.42 billion bushels, up 1% from last year. Durum wheat, used to make pasta, is estimated at 101 million bushels, up 47% from last year and 4% more than in 1992. The government projected corn production at 9 billion bushels, which would be the second-largest corn harvest on record, and soybean output at 2.15 billion bushels. Estimates of winter wheat and tobacco harvests were below 1993 levels due to reductions in acreage planted.