BEEF-BACON SALES are soaring as a result of newspaper stories that the meat is one of President Eisenhower's favorites, is on his menu at Fitzsimons Army Hospital. Armour says sales of beef bacon have shot up 30%, would have gone higher except that demand outran supply.

DAVY CROCKETT CRAZE is dying as fast as the frontiersman's b'ar. Retailers in Manhattan, Chattanooga, St. Louis all report that volume has tumbled as much as 90% in the past few months with little sign of a pickup.

INTEREST-RATE HIKE on consumer loans is being considered by big Manhattan banks. Loan demand is so strong that the hike may be as much as 1/2% on auto, appliance, home-improvement and personal loans.

HELICOPTER TRAVEL will get a boost from New York Airways and Belgium's Sabena Airlines. Inter-airport traffic in the New York area is growing so fast that N.Y.A., now operating five helicopters, will order seven new twelve-passenger, 105-m.p.h. Sikorsky S-58 whirlybirds, double its annual passenger capacity. To expand its local helicopter service between eight European cities (TIME, May 16), Sabena will order eight new Sikorskys.

1955 CHRISTMAS SALES will be the best ever, according to retailers at the Boston Conference on Distribution. The forecast: sales 4% to 10% higher than 1954, with inventories already building up to handle the expected increase.

TAX REFUNDS are in prospect for dozens of companies which got partial fast tax write-offs on plants built during World War II. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a lower-court ruling that Ohio Power Co. should get a $6 million refund because it was allowed only a 35% write-off on an $11 million plant. Under the law, it should have been allowed 100%. The ruling opened the way for refunds to 39 companies with claims of $62 million.

EUROPEAN AUTOMAKERS will break all production records this year, says General Motors President Harlow H. Curtice on a tour of G.M.'s overseas plants. No. 1 Automaker Britain will turn out 1,250,000 cars and trucks, more than 18% over last year, while West Germany's fast-growing auto industry, now in the No. 2 spot, will make a record 820,000 cars and trucks, more than 20% better than 1954.

1955 BUMPER CROPS will exceed earlier forecasts, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Despite acreage cutbacks, farmers are using so much fertilizer in an attempt to keep lagging farm income up that the total output of farm commodities will hit 112% of the 1947-49 average, breaking last year's record 108%.

WEST GERMAN BOOM is still growing. Production index for September jumped to 215 (1936 index: 100), or eight points higher than the previous peak in August, and 14.4% better than September 1954.

FREIGHT-RATE BOOST for U.S. railroads, originally granted on a temporary basis in 1952, will be made permanent. The Interstate Commerce Commission has canceled the expiration date (Dec. 31) of the rate hikes, will grant the 12% to 15% increases indefinitely. Without the boosts, roads would have lost an estimated $900 million in revenues next year.

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