COFFEE PRICES will come down for U.S. consumers as a result of Brazil's devaluation of its coffee dollar. To boost lagging coffee exports, Brazil has cut the dollar-cruzeiro exchange rate to exporters 15%, thus chopping the minimum export rate for Brazilian coffee from 65.7-c- to 53.8-c- a Ib.

MARLBORO CIGARETTE (made by Philip Morris) is introducing a king-size filter tip in a flip-top, crushproof cardboard box which the company says took seven years and 50 patents to develop, and which can be re-used as a handy container for rolled-up nylons, nuts, bolts and fishhooks.

SAVINGS IN 1954 climbed to an alltime record, reported the United States Savings and Loan League. The total: $231.3 billion, an increase of $14.9 billion over 1953 and the biggest yearly jump of any year since the end of World War II.

TEXAS TIDELANDS have produced their third well since drilling resumed last year southeast of Corpus Christi. New well brought in by Gulf Oil Corp. is at 11,540 ft. (under 48 ft. of water) about nine miles off Port Aransas in Nueces County.

BURLINGTON MILLS, buyer of Pacific Mills and Goodall-Sanford for $33 million last year (TIME, July 26), changed its name to Burlington Industries Inc. to reflect its increasing diversification. With $127 million net sales (up 95.5%) for 1954's last quarter, Burlington now has ten affiliates and subsidiaries (making it the biggest U.S. textile manufacturer) turning out everything from winter woolens to summer Palm Beach wear.

RICE SUPPORTS will probably be pegged at 90% of parity for 1955. U.S. rice growers have voted by a surprising 9-to-l margin to accept stiff federal controls which will cut back crops 25% from last year's 1,859,000 acres. With the vote, farmers who stay within the controls now expect to get a prop of about $4.90 per 100 Ibs. instead of the $2.75 guarantee (50% of parity) they would get had growers voted down the tight quotas.

SUPER SABRE (F-100), grounded since November after three mysterious crashes within a month (TIME, Nov. 22), is now back in the air. Tests showed that the 800 m.p.h. North American fighter, on which the Air Force is spending $100 million, needed a new vertical tail and changes in the control system.

TRUCK MANUFACTURERS are in for some competition from the railroads. Burlington Railroad, which makes most of its own freight cars but still has idle space in its shops, will make a newly designed highway trailer (24-ft. aluminum van type) as a pilot model for a production run of several hundred to try out on its Burlington Truck Lines (812 trucks and trailers).

COTTON EXPORTS in 1955 will jump 500,000 bales or 20% over last year, predicts Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson. Because of the new law that permits sales of U.S. farm goods abroad for foreign currency, a deal to sell 50,000 bales to Yugoslavia has already been wrapped up, and another for 175,000 bales to Japan will soon be signed.

SHALE OIL EXPERIMENT by the Government at Rifle, Colo, will be closed down, because private research has made so much progress on getting oil from shale. Union Oil Co., which has 50,000 acres of shale land near Rifle, has just allocated $5,000,000 to increase capacity to 1,000 tons daily, estimates there are 5 billion bbls. of oil on its land.

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